A supernatural hawaiian adventure
by Fuuhase
Summary: In which the world of two normal ladies collides with the production of Hawaii five-0 and then has some Supernatural chaos coming towards them on top. A hopefully funny and also a little exciting fangirlish ride.
1. Chapter 1

Hello hello :) A short note from yours truly:

a) Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I own neither the characters mentioned in this little work of mine nor the actual actors (pitty, really). Also, I don't own any of the movies, series or whatnot that you might find quoted here. It's just a natural part of my lingo, so that's how they end up in here.

b) Please, please do enjoy reading this but DON'T take it too seriously. I adore Hawaii five-0, I love Supernatural, I also am totally in love with all the actors mentioned here. This is not your traditional fanfiction in the sense of a story that involves the actual series. It does however, involve parts of it, and the actors. The story developed in my flat, with my flatmate of awesome as muse. It's definitely a self-insert (I'll leave it up to you to judge who you think is me and who's the flatmate =D). It might also be / turn out to be marry-sueish in some parts. I'm fully aware of that and I embraced that in a (hopefully) self-ironic manner.

I do however, hope you have some fun with this. If you did (or didn't) I'd love read about it. Let me know :). Last remark: I'm not a native speaker, so all mistakes considering language / grammar / you name it... I'm sorry!

All this being said, thanks for reading! It's rad that you took the time!

* * *

><p>*1*<p>

„I know I mentioned it before, but… I want one!" Luzy made the best impression of Dean-puppy-eyes available to her.

Belle rolled her eyes. "Yes. I know. You want one. And I'd get you one if I knew how. But I don't. So shut up, will you? I gotta write this darn report or else I'll be out of a job by the end of the week."

Luzy jumped on the sofa beside her. "But…!"

Belle threw the pen at her. Then the work sheet. She shortly considered throwing the laptop next, but realized that this would probably be taking things a wee bit too far.

"You are a royal pain in the ass. Tell me again, why exactly are you on holidays? And why are you not out and about, climbing some crazy mountain or touring through Scotland on your bike?"

Luzy grinned. "Cause I do what I want! I got no jobs coming in at the moment, so I closed shop for about a month. Maybe two. I don't know. And I promised to kick your lazy ass into action, so I'll wait till next week and then drag you on along with me."

Belle rolled her eyes. "Splendid."

Luzys grin got even broader. "That's deep."

"Oh to hell with you, cut it with the movie references. And hand me back my pen. The faster I get this done, the faster you can drag me off."

Luzy leaped from the sofa, muttering something that sounded annoyingly like "You got a point there", and disappeared somewhere into the kitchen.

For some hours, Belle was being left at peace. She finished her report, mailed it to her boss and got off the internet. She hated this job, but at least it payed the rent. Nevertheless she was thinking about quitting for at least a month already. Maybe she should.

On her way to the kitchen, she came across the open door to Luzys room and stopped dead.

"What the hell are you doing in there?"

In her room, Luzy had pushed all the furniture into the corners and spread a huge map on the floor. Next to her was a stack of travelling books and her open laptop that displayed various beach scenes.

"I repeat... the fuck?"

She entered Luzys room and realized that the map on the floor was a map of Hawaii. Luzy was busily putting pins into various places spread across all the islands. She only looked up after she had put the last pin in. She looked way to happy for Belles taste.

"That's where we are going next week. I booked flights."

Belle shook her head. "You… what? To quote a well-known character: What the hell is wrong with you? I got a job, I got some other deadlines to meet by next Wednesday and even if all that wasn't the case, I don't have the cash to pay even for a one-way ticket."

Luzy looked at her, sternly. Stubbornly, one might say. "You hate your job. You wanted to quit six weeks ago, you just kept putting it off. You don't even want to be here. Neither do I. And I happen to have the cash at the moment, so I might as well take you along and you can pay me back later. There's no better time than now. Give notice at work, pack up your stuff, and let's go. Seriously, what keeps you here? And don't try to get me off your back with some conventional answers, cause you are about as conventional as I am."

"Now I'm not sure whether that's a compliment or an insult.." Belle muttered. "Sure, I hate what I'm doing, but it pays the bill. I cannot live on your expenses and my bank account isn't exactly in for any extraordinary adventures at the moment. Plus, as awesome as Hawaii looks, it's rather warm there, I'll be forced to go to the beach and wear stupid swimsuits. And you'll probably make me bike across the islands until I curse you six days to Sunday. So why should I do that?"

"Cause you'd do everything just not be bored. And boy, are you bored with everything at the moment."

Belle sighed. "I hate you. You know that, right? You've basically just called me Sherlock Holmes… Seven hells, this is a travestie. We throw movie quotes at each other and make funny japes, but all we want is out, huh? But you are probably right. So… dunno. What exactly is it that you plan to do?"

Lucy knew she'd won by then.

Most of their travel preparations during the next days consisted of watching and re-watching episodes of Hawaii Five-0 and the occasional episode of Lost. Uncounted pillow fights ensued when Belle stated over and over again that she'd definitely go neither swimming nor surfing, "just for the record, pretty please".

"You will dear, you will." Lucy retorted each and every time that happened and boom, there went the fierce pillow fighting. Usually it ended when one of them stared starry eyed at their respective favourite male lead in Hawaii five-0.

"I want one…" Lucy stated again when Scott Caans Danny "Danno" Williams swaggered into the picture. Belle grinned. "Yeah, you said so. Last year, when this madness started. But, in case they are still shooting I could try to fetch him from the set, but that might land me into minor trouble…"

Lucy laughed mischievously. "Only if they catch you… muahahaha!"

Belle shook her head. "And you didn't even drink the rum…" She looked at the half empty bottle in her hand. "I still can't believe I quit my job to go to Hawaii… to bike, and as I am constantly told by you, swim and surf. Oh, and do Yoga of course, cause… my back and such, right?"

Lucy nodded solemnly. "Spot on. And now don't tell me your back hasn't gotten a lot better during the last year. Or your knees. Or, basically everything about your body."

There was no denying it. About a year ago, when they had moved in together, Belle had made Lucy promise to force and kick her into action, and very often much to her dismay, Lucy had stayed true to her word. She'd gotten her to take yoga classes, more or less forcefully persuaded her that she needed her own bike (and had to use it, mind you!) and made her do all kinds of other physical activities whenever opportunities opened up. It had done her worlds of good, but having always been the grumpy kid, she only grudgingly admitted so.

"So, tomorrow, huh? Aloha Hawaii." She took another deep sip from the rum bottle.


	2. Chapter 2

They got as far as San Francisco airport the next day, where they were told that all flights to Honolulu had been canceled due to severe storms and rainfalls and fear of a Tsunami.

"You gotta be kidding me…" Belle sighed and looked at Luzy. "Someone warned them that we are coming, I bet…"

Luzy snorted. "Yeah, right. Well, we might as well make the best of this. At least the airline had the decency to get us a hotel room, so let's go. And they rather have some decent food there, I'm starving…"

The hotel the airline had booked them into turned out to be more than decent.

Belle happily bounced back into the main room from the bathroom. "I just had my very own Dean moment… we have a friggin' steam shower!" She jumped on the bed. "And look at that, it's huge! Presuming you'll sleep on the floor again, it's all mine. I like."

Luzy stood impatiently at the door. "Come ON now! I'm hungry!"

Together they made their way down to the restaurant, just to be told that it was already closed.

"WHAT? You can't be serious. It's only ten o'clock, I only had the stuff airlines call food, that's not even good enough to keep a five year old well nourished and you tell me you are CLOSED?" Belle dragged the complaining and visibly unhappy Luzy away from the reception, pocketed a map on her way out and called on a cab. While she instructed the driver to get them to the city center as fast as possible, she dug in her purse for her emergency kit. It consisted of an apple, a snickers and some cookies.

"Here. Have that and be quiet. We'll find some place to eat in town, I'd guess." She knew it would be crucial to find a place that was more than decent. Preferably one of the best restaurants in town would manifest in front of them once they had reached the city center, cause at this point, while nearly any food would satisfy her ravenous friend, nothing less than GREAT food would brighten her mood. Belle couldn't really blame her, the flight had been awfully long, with no place to go and not enough space to really stretch your leg. It could drive a less exercise-dependent person than Luzy crazy. Factor in the absence of satisfying meals and you had your own little Luzycapolypse.

The driver dropped them off in Downtown. The survival kid had at least succeeded in making Luzy less grumpy. It took them another 20 minutes to agree on a restaurant, a cozy looking tiny Indian place, and about half an hour passed in complete silence until the food arrived. Two spoons into her dish, Belle knew she was off the hook. The food was amazing and the happy expression that spread over Luzys face could not be mistaken. Good food rarely failed to make either of them happy.

After they had payed, they decided they might as well take a stroll around while they were there. San Francisco certainly turned out to be an interesting spot and much remained to be discovered. Soon enough the long flight took its toll though, and they went back to the hotel and where asleep in no time.

When Belle woke up the next morning, it was bright and sunny outside. She rolled around to find her mobile to check the time. She rolled a bit fast though and all she managed was to avoid crashing into the nightstand on her way down. "Fucking hell…" she cursed, when from the door she heard a chuckle and a definitely male voice asking "Charming… is that your morning routine?" The chuckle turned into full on laughter when Belle's head reappeared from behind the bed, hair all over the place and a still drowsy expression on her face.

"The hell? Who… oh fuck. Okay, let's skip the who are you part and go straight to what in the world are you doing in my hotel room? Are you even real?" She pinched herself in the arm, just to make sure that she wasn't still asleep. On second thought, she'd very much prefer to still be asleep, cause that would mean that Scott Caan wasn't standing in the door frame.

The chuckle again. "''I am totally real. I also admittedly went into the wrong room, but it was definitely worth the mistake to see you take that swan dive. I also might add that the door was open."

Belle cursed. "Was it, now." She took a deep breath. "I'm going to kill her. I'm so going kill her… "

He still stood there, grinning like the Cheshire cat. "But, seriously, are you alright? You took quite a spectacular tumble… ". He could hardly suppress another laugh.

"Yeah. I'm fine. I do that on a daily basis. But your concern is charming, really…" If he noticed the vile undertone, he obviously preferred to ignore it.

She was just about to say something rather unfriendly, when a second person appeared behind Scott and the American turned to face whoever approached him to say something to him. Belle's head dropped a little deeper.

"Yeah. Come on. Make my life a misery…" She murmured. All she could make out of the other person was that it was a guy, too, and that he was considerably taller than Scott. Which, in itself, she thought, wasn't yet that much of an achievement, considering how small the guy was. Broad, though. Nicely build, she had to admit. "Stop it right there" she told herself. She had a certain idea as to who the other guy could be, but she had absolutely zero desire to get it confirmed. Trying to fix her messy hair into a bun she got up and decided to end the unintended encounter by simply closing the door. She reached it just in time to literally kick it shut into Scotts face when he turned again to say something to her. She ignored the complaints from outside about "being majorly uncivil" and went on to the shower.

She took her time and when she came out of the bathroom again, she found Luzy in an absurd pose on the floor that the other girl called stretching. Belle called it madness, but that's just advanced Yoga for you. She settled on the bed and looked imploringly down on Luzy.

"Tell me, why exactly did you think it such a good idea to leave the door open when you left?"

Luzy looked up, confused. "I did? I'm sorry. I thought I had closed it. Did anything happen?" She unwrapped her legs that had been in some place behind her head where, in Belle's world they did definitely not belong, and sat on the floor, cross legged.

"Has anything happened… now. Let me think. Apart from the fact that Scott Caan suddenly stood right into this room and saw me taking a rather ungraceful dive from my bed, by which he felt enormously entertained I might add, and then had the decency to be chatted up by Mr. O'Loughlin who also may have seen me in my spectacularly pretty sleep wear," with that she pointed to her Winnie the Poo shirt and boxer shorts, "no. Nothing happened."

Luzy looked at her in disbelief for a moment, then managed to ask: "For real?" When Belle nodded she broke out into laughter. Rolling on the floor, holding her belly she could hardly breathe for all the fun she had with the picture Belle had just described to her in her mind.

"This is SO not funny, I swear. You know what he said? 'Charming… is that your morning routine?'"

She should have known. Lucy grinned at her. "I want one."


	3. Chapter 3

It took Luzy a while to persuade Belle to go down for some late breakfast, but finally succeeded. Hunger triumphed over the possibility of a follow-up humiliation in the face of the walking muscle square that went by the name of Scott Caan. They took their breakfast outside to the sun terrace, had a good chat and relaxed in the sun. While they did so, he airline called and confirmed that they could take their flight out to Honolulu with the first aircraft leaving that very night. They were informed that since the weather over the ocean had cleared up and the Tsunami warnings had been taken down, flight schedules would return back to normal.

"Sweet. So we got an extra day in the city and then off to your crazy island boot camp. Fancy some last minute shopping?" Belle asked with the most innocent voice. She knew Luzy hated nearly nothing as much as shopping. They settled on a combination of seeking out the best food places along the streets, checking into San Francisco architecture and making the occasional stop for some shopping in between. It worked like a charm and they were exhausted but happy when they finally made it back to the hotel.

There was just enough time for both of them to get into the shower and get packed before the airline called that boarding would be in about an hour.

"Oh well, second try at aloha Hawaii it is, then." Belle said and gave her suitcase a spirited kick outside the door. It was followed by the distinctive sound of something rather solid and heavy hitting a for this kind of encounter unprepared human being. Curses followed. A lot of them. Most of them were as pictographically explicit as they were x-rated.

While Belle still marveled at the variety of curses the poor person she had knocked over could work up, Luzy put her head around the corner to check for the poor victim of the suitcase attack.

"Wow. You totally hit home. He's still floored." The stupid grin on her face when she turned, made Belle suspect the worst. She stuck her head out of the door next to Luzys.

"Oh no. Of all people, why him? I had happily forgotten about him!" A moment later, her mother's up-bringing kicked in and she remembered a thing called manners. "You alright there?"

Scott looked up and let out a groan.

"Oh wow. Is that your revenge? Remind me not to cross your pass again, will you? You seem dangerous to me. You should actually meet my colleague, the two of you seem to play in the same league."

Belle decided to ignore that she could feel herself go a little more towards the reddish spectrum of skin color and looked at Luzy. "Are we sure the part he's got on TV is actually a role and no reality tv? He sure sounds like Danny."

Luzy let out a giggle and, only perceptible to Belle, and very silently but decidedly said: "I want one." Then she leaned back and watched, examining Scott a bit more closely while he got back on his feet.

When he did so, he came over and held out his hand towards her.

"We haven't met yet. I already kind of know your maniac of a friend there, who seems to be fond of all kinds of stunts, but you are new. I'm Scott. And you are?"

She took his hand and shook it. "Luzy. And that's Belle, just in case you wanna have something shorter to call her than that shockingly accurate description of hers."

He raised an eyebrow, looked at Belle, looked back at Luzy and then said with disarming honesty "If I can chose, I'll not call her anything 'cause we'll never meet again. I've met her for the first time this morning and she's already tried to break my nose and now, well I'm pretty certain that was an attempt on my life. I should sue her."

Lucy couldn't help but laugh, while Belle folded her arms and challengingly looked at Scott. "I dare you."

He shook his head in disbelief and threw up his arms, pointing at Belle. "That's exactly what I mean. Next thing she does something stupid and announces it by saying 'Watch me', huh?"

Belle shot him a glare. "No. Next thing she's going to say is: 'I hate him. I hate him so much.'" She took up her suitcase and looked at Luzy. "You coming? I doubt the plane will be waiting for us." With that, she marched off towards the elevator.

Luzy couldn't help but enjoy the view on the head shaking Scott. He most certainly was even more entertaining in real life than on tv, if that was even possible.

"Don't worry. She does that sometimes. But shall I tell you a secret?"

He looked at her curiously. "Huh?"

"She's like totally soft and nice on the inside. Sounds familiar?" She gave him a cocky smile and then headed off, just in time to squeeze through the already halfway closed doors of the elevator.

Scott looked after her and frowned. "Nutjobs. There's only nutjobs around. Cute, though."


	4. Chapter 4

Finally at their destination Honolulu, Luzy and Belle took a cab into city center. Belle put her suitcase up against a wall, sitting down on it and taking in her surroundings.

"I might repeat myself but… we are in Hawaii! I still can't believe we did this incredibly stupid stunt…"

Lucy shrugged, put her case next to Belles, settled down on the floor in front of it, looked up to her an smiled.

"Looks like we did. Look around for a moment and then tell me you regret it."

Belle let out a small laugh.

"Are you nuts? I've only had like ten minutes to really look around and already love the place. It might be crazy but it's probably the best thing we've done in ages. Or… like. Ever. Anyway, we might want to move on and get rid of all our stuff . What was the name of the place you booked us into?"

Luzy got out her travel kit with neatly stacked information on almost everything the two of them might need during their island adventure. And then some. Cause better be safe than sorry.

"J & B Haven. It's a bed and breakfast, I booked us in for a week, that way the rates were cheapest. We can still lengthen our stay the owner said. Two british ladies, entertaining people from what I could tell."

Belle lit up. "British… awww. I like. Let's go then."

They got into another cab (and decided, considering the rates they charged here, it was about time to get some bikes), found their destination and settled in. After an hour of most pleasant conversation with their hosts, they pack some stuff together and headed back into town.

"Let's go see old Kamehameha I., shall we?" Belle suggested. "I've always been rather fond of his golden helmet and cloak."

However, getting into Downtown Honolulu wasn't as easy as they thought. Several streets were closed, and the main street was crowded with what looked like a police raid. Luzy heard the distinctive sound of Belle slapping her hand against her forehead.

"Serious case of face palm… why did no one of us think about checking whether they actually ARE shooting another season of 5-0 instead of only joking about it?" She craned her neck to get a better look at what was actually going on down in front of them. It looked like one of those major kick-ass action scenes she loved the show for so much. A moment later she was more than glad that the barriers had kept them from getting any closer to the set. A huge explosion set her ears ringing and basically devastated the set the team had built in what, by the looks of it, must have been hours and hours of work.

Way to late both girls covered their ears. It took them a while to gain their hearing back.

"Bloody hell, first tsunami warnings and now they play 'blowing up the city center'? That's a welcome if I ever saw one…" Belle muttered. She wasn't quite sure whether she had already recovered enough from the shock to actually find the things she just saw cool or was still annoyed why there had been warning of sorts of what was coming. She turned to say something along those lines to Luzy, just to realize that the other girl had vanished from her side. She looked around. "Luzy?".

It took her a moment to spy her friend on the other side of the street, sneaking closer to the set. There wasn't any barrier on that side keeping her from doing so, but somehow the whole build of the place suggested that, barrier or not, non-crew members had no business being there. Belle decided to ignore that and feign ignorance in case someone stopped her, sighed and made her way over to Luzy. Getting closer, she saw that her friend was frantically pointing in the direction of the explosion while obviously struggling to surpress loud fits of laughter. Belle followed her pointed finger and look down the street, at a place about thirty to thirty five meters ahead of them. It was clear from the chaos and mayhem going on that something must have gone majorly wrong with the explosion. But what Luzy was specifically pointing to was a seemingly agitated Scott Caan, who was literally jumping with anger, slamming his index finger at his co-stars chest, yelling at him. Belle and Luzy crept a bit closer to get into earshot. They huddled behind a container of sorts that had fallen over, and strained their ears to actually get an idea of what was going on. Amidst all the commotion, all the girls could make out was: "…turn into your bloody character more every day… what were you thinking… got a god damn stunt double… had no business being anywhere near that explosion… could at least have TOLD ME SO!" Then they saw him rush of set and vanish behind one of the trailers.

"Party hard" was all Belle got out before Luzys self-restraint broke and her friend let out a loud and heartfelt laughter.

"Damn it Luzy, shut up or they are bound to find us …"

It wasn't her friend who answered, though.

"I'm afraid I have to correct you there, young lady, they already found you." Next to the container, still in full battle gear, stood Daniel Dae Kim, holding his signature rifle from the show like some kind of new in-gadget. He somehow managed to look like the gun belonged to him even when he was off character. Quite fascinating, Belle thought.

The girls got up from behind the container, both grinning in what they hoped to be an apologetic as well as a winning manner.

Daniel indicated towards the barriers that by now lay rather far behind them with his head.

"I'd say you strayed a bit off track. You might want to go back and join the other spectators." His voice was friendly, yet determined.

Saving grace came from the most unexpected place.

"Daniel, that's alright. They are friends of Scotts… sort of." Luzy and Belle jerked around to where the voice had come from and stood face to face with Alex.

"Uhm. Yeah. Hi Alex. Nice to see you… again." The words tumbled out of Belles mouth before she even had a chance to register that, back in the hotel in San Francisco she had pretended not to see him. Seeing the cocky smile spreading over his face she regretted having said anything at all, but especially the last part of the sentence.

"Jep. If I remember correctly, last time we met you… ". He didn't get to finish the sentence, cause Belle cut him short.

"I nearly broke Scotts nose when slamming the door, yes, I know. And I'm sorry. Probably should tell him that." It almost came out like a threat. She liked that.

His grin went a bit broader and he managed to communicate with one look that this was not the distinctive part he remembered. Belle made a mental note to lose the Winnie the Poo shirt first thing that night, no matter how much she loved it.

Daniel stood in between them, still looking slightly confused. Then he shrugged, nodded in greeting towards the girls and walked back, straight into the rather headless bunch of people running around the center of the explosion.

Luzy looked at Alex.

"Thanks for the save. Care to explain what just went wrong and why Diva Caan freaked out so bad?" She had to grin when she named him that, but it just fit too well to not say it.

"Well, the explosion part is obvious I guess. Thing is, I wanted to do one of those stunts myself for ages, and we figured that, despite the scale of the explosion, that one wasn't so dangerous. So I finally got all the people involved to trust me enough to handle that one myself. Seems I forgot to factor Scotts caring in. I don't even know why no one told him of the change of plan, I obviously forgot it myself. Anyway, thing is, I go out and walk into the scene as planned, when dear Scott rushes to my rescue cause he thought I'd been walking straight into the explosion, unaware. Explosion went off, the scene is ruined, bosses decided I can't do the take myself after all and Scott has run off to sulk somewhere. No first we gotta un-piss Mr. Scott and then re-do the scene. Just your normal day at the office." He looked both of them over. "And seriously, I don't even know why I just told you all of that."

Belle murmured "Cause you do what you want" but decided not to repeat the phrase when Alex asked her what she had just said. She just looked at him and said: "Well, since we've graduated into Mr. Caans circle of friends, we might as well find us a place where we're not in the way and watch a little of the shooting, right? And you might want to go find the damsel in distress. The bromance factore the two of you have suggest just hugging him will be enough to make nice with him." The look he gave her after that made her regret her own cockiness for a moment cause she felt her knees go just a little weak. That he broke into heartfelt laughter a second later, throwing his head back and obviously being totally oblivious towards how attractive that made him, didn't make things any better. She looked at the not so obliviously Luzy and hissed "Shut up."

The other one just grinned and silently mouthed the words "I do what I want". But she kept silent.

When Alex indeed went off to find Scott and bring him back on scene, the girls found themselves a spot in a rather remote corner of the closed off area to watch whatever was going to happen next.

When they had settled down, Belle looked questioningly at Luzy.

"What the hell did he do that for? Backing us up over there? I mean let's face it, Scott will go crazy if he sees my face somewhere around this set."

Luzy just shrugged and said in her sweetest voice: "Well certainly not because of me,  
>'cause as we are both very well aware, until 15 minutes ago, the guy has never seen me before. Maybe the two of you bonded over Winnie the Poo without you noticing…"<p>

Belle kicked her into the side. "I hate you. I hate you so much." Then she turned her attention to the things going on on-set, ignoring the amused little sound her friend made next to her.


	5. Chapter 5

The shoot turned out to be rather entertaining. When the crew finally packed together and called it a day, Belle and Luzy still sat around, giggling and generally recovering from all the awesomeness they had just witnessed. No amount of gag reels could have prepared them for the actual hilariousness of the whole crew. It wasn't only Scott and Alex who screwed up several times. There was also one of the technical guys who managed to wrap himself into one of the cables, and then, totally unaware of that, pull at one end. A spectacular fall followed. It took a while after that till everyone had calmed down again and Luzy remarked that she hoped that, while this was enormously entertaining, most of the days shouldn't be as failure-filled or else the next season would never see daylight. Additional to being generally very amused by each and everything, they'd both fallen head over heels in love with one of the camera guys, who had spied them pretty early after they had settled down, and from then on, kept communicating with them via signs and facial expressions. He somehow managed to ironically commentate on all that was going on and at the same time keep on shooting his scenes. When he was done for the day, he shot them a broad smile, waved, called "See you soon" and vanished. Belle and Luzy happily waved back and nodded frantically.

"Making more friends, are we?" came a voice from behind them.

"Wow, STOP that!" Belle whirled around and glared at Alex. He grinned innocently.

"Stop what?"

"Sneaking up on us and then say something, matter of factly, just to see us jump. It's annoying."

He at least made an effort to look guilty.

"Stop that, too. If that was an attempt of expressing guilt, you failed spectacularly. What did you want from us, anyway? I at least hope that making us jump wasn't your only motivation."

He looked at her a bit too long and intense for her to feel totally comfortable.

"You would hope that… I see." Way to self-assured smile. He let the comment hang in the air for a while before he continued. "But you are right. It's Daniels birthday. We'll have a barbecue down at the beach. Care to join us?" He looked from one girl to the other.

Luzy looked at him, frowning.

"Why would you invite us? I mean, food and beach sounds totally fine to me, but. Reasons?"

Alex managed to pull of the exact look you'd expect on a kid that has just been caught with its hand in the cookie jar.

"… well, it would bother Scott to no end, or at least he'd go to unexpected length' to make it look like it does. Which usually is very, very entertaining." His voice sounded way too happy when he said that.

"What's up with the two of you? Are on some kind of personal feud or something?" Luzy still looked rather imploringly at him. Alex shrugged.

"We just got… bored. And…" he ruffled through his hair, "…well, we kind of started to try to drive each other up the wall, on purpose."

"How very grown up of you" Belle said sweetly.

"And Scott is winning and now you need us to make a point?" By now, Luzy looked about as happy as Alex had moments before. "I like that. Which direction is the food, you said?"

Belle couldn't help but be amused by the enthusiasm her friend displayed.

"Oh, well then. Off we go."

She shortly wondered how long it would take reality to kick in and make them realize what was going on. Being invited to a barbecue with the Hawai five-0 crew on their very first day on the island had not made it on their travel plan. Not that she was about to argue, she thought, stealing a look sideways to where Alex was walking. He _was_ extremely handsome off the screen, too, she had to admit.

"No. No no no. No! I swore I'd never have to deal with that mad woman again!"

They hadn't even properly gone down to where the barbecue took place when Scott appeared in front of them, shot one unfriendly look at Belle and then looked like he'd tackle Alex any moment.

"Why? What is she doing here? Did you hire her to piss me off? I sense conspiracy!" He whirled around. "Daniel? Are you …?" He stopped mid-sentence. "Oh. Hi." Silence. "Lucy, right?"

Luzy had a hard time not to fully laugh at him and decided that it was safer to simply nod.

"What are you doing here? I mean, on set? Or, well it's not the set anymore, is it. Here, with us, I mean?" He didn't look too happy with himself and a bit at a loss.

Luzy nearly felt sorry for him.

"Since we are", here she looked briefly at Alex "… friends of yours", here she bluntly talked over him when he set out to protest, "we were allowed to hang around on set and watch the shooting, and now Alex invited us over for the barbecue. Only because I was nearly dead from hunger, of course." She winked. "Oh and, by the way, happy birthday, Daniel!" She nodded over to where Daniel sat.

He obviously was enjoying the scene that played out in front of him, looking from Scott to Luzy to Belle and Alex and back, smirking. "Thanks, but you'll have to say that again later. My birthday is actually tomorrow but we thought we might as well start celebrating early."

Luzy nodded approvingly. "Good plan that is. Food?"

Scott wasn't ready to give up yet, though. "I've got nothing against you, but does your friend necessarily have to stay?"

Luzys looked at him for only a very brief moment.

"Oh, alright. Whatever." He muttered. He wasn't sure whether he had heard right and that was met with a "Good boy" by Luzy, but it certainly sounded like it. He decided he didn't want to know.

Alex pushed Belle a little to go and move on down to the other.

"I guess it's safe now, even for you" he announced happily.

Belle shook her head. "You are impossible, you know that, right?" The smile he gave her could hardly be mistaken. "Yeah. I guess you do."

Despite the fact that Scott had stopped to openly protest against her existence, she decided that it might be smarter to settle down on the other side of the campfire. When she caught Luzys eye, she indicated with a little headshake how absurd she found their current situation, just to find that her friend was doing exactly the same. Both looked around them, looked at each other again and then tried very hard not to laugh out loud. They failed miserably. Several minutes later, they were still recovering from their laughing fit.

"High five" Luzy said, when she finally had caught her breath back. Belle grinned and nodded.

"The two of you are totally nuts, you know that, right?" Scott asked.

Luzy looked at him, eyes wide open. "Does that bother you?" she asked, tilting her head aside, sounding nearly a little hurt.

"Errr. Do I have to answer that?" When her gaze wouldn't shift, he got uncomfortable, especially because he realized that everybody was now looking at him, waiting for his reaction. "No. No it doesn't bother me. Okay? It doesn't. Can we eat now?"

Luckily, Daniel took pity on him and started to pass around the food. That got everybody busy and soon they all were going back and forth between the rather hilarious amounts of food. A bit later, Belle found herself next to Luzy again, both with plates full of the most delicious food.

"The food is insanely good. I'll be able to roll home tonight."

Luzy nodded. "I hear you." She happily had another bite from the garlic bread she had just snatched from Daniel a moment ago. "At least that would safe us the money for another cab ride."

When everybody finally had settled down again, Alex introduced the two of them to the rest of the people sitting around, then passed each of the girls a beer.

Belle looked at Luzy, indicating towards the group of people next to them and then raising her bottle in a small toast.

"To the best possible kind of crazy, huh? Cheers."


	6. Chapter 6

Luzy rolled over. When she felt an obstacle in her way, she let out a little groan and tried to push it. To sleepy and still way too drunk, she tried to roll over it when it wouldn't budge.

"Don't do that."

The fact that the obstacle distinctively voiced its displeasure at least woke her up enough to slowly open her eyes. The light was blinding, it had to be nearly noon for the sun to be so bright. She closed her eyes again, taking a deep breath. Since it was way too bright and moving made her head swim, she decided to feel around a little to determine what the obstacle was. Now that she came to think of it, it was warm. Kind of… massive. No, that wasn't the right word but… compact, maybe? Her brain was still way too slow. Warm, talking, compact…

"Oh lordy", she heard herself say.

"What?" the "obstacle", that by now she had identified, asked.

"Nothing. Go back to sleep." Sometimes that worked with guys, and she crossed her fingers as hard as possible to make it work this time, too. She waited for about five minutes until all she could hear was Scotts regular breathing, meanwhile using the time to slowly get her eyes accustomed to the light in the room. Then she moved. Slowly. Not only not to wake Scott again but also simply to prevent herself from feeling even more nauseated than she already did.

While she slowly crept away, she tried to access her memory of what had happened the night before. Much to her disappointment, the memory seemed, at least for the moment, irretrievably lost. At least she wore some clothes. Scott though… All she could see from him was a shock of blond hair, his bare back (a nice view, she had no problems to admit, even in her current state) and one naked leg that was wrapped around the blanket. At least he really seemed to be asleep again.

Getting into a standing position without bending over and reproducing all of the food from the barbecue (at least that much she remembered) turned out to be ridiculously difficult. Finally having managed to gather herself up and lean onto one of the walls of the room she was in, she slowly looked around, taking in her surroundings and tried to re-orientate herself. Absolutely nothing looked familiar. From what she could tell, this was some kind of single room condo. The bed that she'd just left stood against one of the walls. It was rather generous in its dimensions. The room itself was spacious, with a sitting area, a dining area and an open kitchen. There was a terrace door leading to the beach, which was closed. The room had another large window that looked out onto some kind of patio, next to the front door.

Door sounded good to Luzy. Still dizzy, she decided that leaving, finding Belle and then trying to patch together her memory was a good action plan. She made for the door as silently as she could, just to find that it was locked. Very very silently, she cursed and turned towards the doors that lead to the terrace, but those were locked as well.

"What the hell?" She pondered for a moment, and then started to scan the apartment for possible dumping places for the keys. She gave up after five minutes. There was no obvious place on some counter or table, where she could spot the keys. There was a chest of drawers, but opening that and searching the compartments for the keys would make way to much noise and very likely wake Scott. She had no desire to talk to him right now. Not before she had some kind of an idea of what had happened last night.

Not being able to remember a good part of the last 10-12 hours, feeling utterly hung over and being shut into a place she didn't even know didn't make for a very healthy combination. She pondered her options and the window caught her attention. It was big. If she managed to open it silently, she could climb out.

In normal circumstances, that would have been the time where she'd started to laugh at herself, wake Scott and force him to produce the keys. Still being mentally upside down due to the amounts of alcohol she had consumed the night before, her brain didn't work in its usual ways and thus it told her that using the window as exit strategy was a totally sound plan. She moved over and, much to her delight, found that the window opened rather easily. Happiness was fast rebuked though, when the window wouldn't budge after it had gotten up about halfway. It simply refused to move.

"What the hell is wrong with this rotten place?" She shook her head.

Bad idea. Several different alcoholic flavors worked their way up her throat. She liked none of them and it took her another five minutes to get over the extremely queasy feeling in her stomach. Then, with all the resolve she could muster, she decided that the opening of the window was large enough to let her climb through. The prospect of having to push through more or less sideways and on her belly didn't exactly excite her, but she decided to ignore that. Slowly, so as not to lose balance, she lifted her leg up and put it on the window sill. The opening somehow had looked much broader without her halfway in it.

"Come on. You can do this. Alcohol or not, all those yoga classes can't have been for nothing" she told herself when she pushed through a bit more. She felt like a one hundred year old granny in slow motion. Slowly lowering down on her belly, she tried to preoccupy her mind with anything but her swimming head and the threatening nauseous feeling in her stomach. The going was rather slow but she made progress. She still should have known better. At about halfway through, at this awkward moment of having one leg still inside, lying face down on the window sill and the other leg nearly down on the patio, toes searching for the ground, it all went wrong.

"Wow. Would you care to explain that most spectacular exit strategy of yours? And where the hell are we?"

She had been so utterly concentrated on her escape that Scotts voice spooked her beyond words. Her head flew up, collided with the window frame, and, as a result, caused her whole body to slump on the window sill, legs sprawling from her side like abandoned ropes. She let out a wimper, for the crash hadn't excactly improved her headache. She was just about to say something rather unfriendly to Scott when she realized that her space to move had remarkably lessened. Slowly and silently, the window frame had come down again, settled on her back and head and left her spread eagled and utterly helpless.

When she looked up at Scott, he burst into a fitfull laughter that caused him to sit down. He couldn't do anything but laugh. When he felt like he had recovered, he finally lifted his head but the picture of Luzy hanging in the window was just too much to take, and he went of howling with laughter again. Luzy, who couldn't yet find anything amusing in her peril, struggled hard against the window, by now utterly oblivious to the sickish feeling and her swimming head. All she cared about was getting free again, a feat at which she finally succeed when she somehow managed to push the window up again high enough to simply let herself fall onto the patio. There she simply stayed on the floor. Looking up above her, she saw Scotts face, red and drowned in tears from laughing, but also worried.

"Oh my god, are you okay? Sorry, but I just… I didn't… you…". He lost it again and this time, imagining what she must have looked like, Luzy joined him. Not for long though, cause her head was still pouding badly.

"Ouh, ouch! God damn it. Why aren't you hung over? And what the hell happened? Where ARE we?"

Scott looked at her, grinned and shrugged.

"Beats me."


	7. Chapter 7

"I'm dying."

"Alex, that is about the tenth time you promised that, and you still fail to deliver. How about you try just to shut up instead of dying? Would be an utter waste anyway." Belle sat in an armchair, legs tucked in beneath her, looking over to where Alex lay curled up in a rather sorry state. He obviously didn't remember much of last night apart from the fact that he still was convinced that Luzy wasn't a real person but a demon.

"No woman can drink this much and still be real."

Next to the sentiment that he was for sure about to die, that was the sentence Belle had heard most often during the last two hours. She still thanked whatever good sense had suddenly possessed her to not join the drinking competition Alex and Luzy had started the night before. She had woken around nine in the morning, feeling a little sleep deprived but generally fine.

Around three in the morning, Daniel, Alex, Scott, one girl from hair and make-up, a camera guy and Luzy and Belle had been the last men and women standing from what had been an extremely entertaining beach party. They had split up and the girls and the actors actually meant to make their way back to Daniels place and go to sleep, but then somehow Luzy had teased Alex about being way to drunk for a guy his size. He hadn't taken kindly to that, obviously hurt in his male pride. No amount of good humoring from either Daniel or Scott had been able to stop him from challenging Luzy to a drinking duell. She had declined. Until Daniel had made the mistake of saying that it was "totally out of line to challenge a girl to a drinking competition." Luzy, already slightly tipsy and in superhero mood, had looked at him.

"You think a woman can't be a match for a guy? Look at him, he's already loop-sided, I'm pretty sure two more beers and he falls over, deadly drunk and asleep." She still hadn't really meant to join, Belle had been able to tell, but then somehow everything went out of control. It took them a while to find a bar that was still open, but once they did, madness ensued. Luzy and Alex where drinking each other into oblivion, with Scott watching fascinated and Daniel and Belle repeatedly trying to act as the voices of reason to no avail. It still made her chuckle to think that for once, she had been the sensible one.

The drinking had ended when Alex had crashed onto the table head first, only seconds before Luzy had to call it quits. Still, she had won. By now utterly out of her mind and under the spell of alcohol induced idiocy, she somehow had managed to persuade Scott that it would be a great idea to go off and look for an adventure. He agreed way too readily for Belle's taste and no amount of reasoning had succeeded in keeping them from their quest. They had set off into the dark.

It had fallen on Daniel and Belle to navigate the passed-out Alex back into the apartment. It had been a rather strenuous undertaking, and they sure had made for a pathetic little company. Finally at Daniels place, they had dropped Alex onto the sleeping sofa in the living room, sat outside with another beer talking and then retreated to bed.

They had been out for breakfast together and now Daniel was on his way around town in search of Luzy and Scott while Belle was left to babysit hung over Alex. Not that she minded too much. Despite looking completely destroyed, he still was rather cute.

"You know what? I'll get you something against that hangover of yours. You look miserable, and we don't want that, do we?" She winked at him and got up to fetch the ingredients for her amongst her friends well known life-saving anti-hangover potion. It actually only consisted of a vitamin pill, salt and an aspirin, but usually it did its job to lessen the headache and bring even extremely hung-over people back amongst the living. She congratulated herself on the fact that she had made it a habit to have that stuff in her hand bag when on holidays. Well, apart from the salt, but that she could easily find in Daniels kitchen.

She went back with the mixture, just to find that Alex had gone back to sleep. She watched him for a while.

"You my dear, are way too attractive for anyone's good" she murmured when she set the glass on the coffee table next to the sofa.

"Thanks." He hadn't opened his eyes, but she could see the faint smile on his face. She made a memo to herself to double check her assumptions next time she was about to utter something she didn't want other people to hear and went back to her chair.

"Any more compliments you want to pay me? They might speed up my recovery." He still sounded miserable, but at least he hadn't claimed to be about to die within the last half an hour or so. That had to count as some kind of improvement.

"Don't press your luck. If you feel like you can keep anything down, drink the stuff I made for you. It tastes rather disgusting, but it helps within thirty to forty minutes, I promise."

Alex followed her orders and fought down the drink. Then he settled back onto the sofa, this time really falling asleep again. She had just immersed herself into a book that she had found on the table when the door flew open and Daniel stood in the room, looking rather distressed.

Her first idea was that something had happened to Luzy and Scott. She jumped up and rushed over to him. "What's wrong? Did you find them?"

Daniel looked at her, confused. "What? Find whom? Oh… oh, damn it. Luzy and Scott. No. No I didn't. I went down to the set 'cause I figured that we might want to call shooting off for today but I had left my phone. You can't imagine what is going on down there, it's a nightmare. They sent me back home until we get further notice."

Belle was pretty certain that Daniel was making absolutely no sense, but she tried to stay patient. "Okay, nice and slow again. What happened? Why are you so stressed out? What does 'until futher notice' mean?"

Daniel looked at her, still confused for a moment, and then he realized that most of what he had said couldn't possibly add up to anything even only remotely making sense for Belle.

"Sorry. Okay. What happened is that they found a body, down at the beach not far from where we had our party. It's one of the extras we had in several episodes of the last season, so obviously everybody is rather upset. From what I could gather, something doesn't seem to be right, though. Someone said something about a 'freakish accident' or such. I don't know. All I know is that the police seem rather out of their wits, filming has been postponed and. Yeah. That's about it. And when I asked, no one could tell me what 'until further notice' exactly meant, either."

He sat down on the chair next to him.

"A body? Like, a dead person? You're kidding!" It only took one look at his face to establish that he wasn't. Belle settled on the chair next to Daniel.

"Dear me."


	8. Chapter 8

Since the door remained locked, Scott had followed Luzy through the window onto the patio. It took him a lot less effort than Luzy though, cause he managed to get the window unstuck and so could easily climb through. Telling her that they might not want to be seen around the house, he led her down to the beach and then enlightened her about the previous night. He told her about her drinking duell with Alex, "Pretty impressive stuff, remind me to never try to start a drink-off with you…", and about how, after she had won, they had set of "in search for an adventure".

Luzy laughed. "Yeah, that sounds just like me. Did I happen to claim to be Wonderwoman as well? I do that every now and then."

Scott nodded. "The whole superhero deal. You can be quite scary at times, you know that, right?"

She gave him the most innocent smile she was capable of producing in her desolate state.

"Did we find any adventures?"

Scott shrugged.

"Not really. But you got all cranky 'cause you were hungry and tired. Beats me how you managed to get hungry after all this alcohol, but you did. I'm still trying to figure out how you managed to talk me into it, but somehow you got me to open the door to this place."

She looked rather curious.

"I did? How? And what the hell is this place, anyway?"

He run his hands through his hair and gave her a lopsided smile.

"No idea. Just some house really. Thank god it's unoccupied at the moment. Let's say you played me very well, sweet-talking me about how professional my lock-picking skills always looked on screen and such. Well and then you dared me and I was stupid enough to fall for it." He didn't look particularly sorry for himself though, rather the opposite. He seemed to enjoy himself very much.

"Wait a moment, we did break into this place and then slept there? That's hilarious."

"Tell me about it. How old are we again? Anyway, once in I didn't want to keep the door open, so I tried to kind of get it in order again. Let's just say you got a little impatient and you kicked it shut. I'm still not certain you could open it again, even if you had the keys. Wonderwoman kick, you know?" He raised an eye brow.

Luzy giggled. "Sometimes I just fail so bad." But at least she now knew what had happened. And what didn't. She'd have time to ponder whether she approved of that or not later on.

Scott nodded. "Spectacularly so. Anyway, I gave up after a while of trying to get it open again. By that time, you were fast asleep on the bed. Obviously tiredness trumped hunger in that case. I decided that this wasn't the worst idea and that we'd surely figure something out in the morning. Turns out I was right." Here he happily chuckled again, remembering the hilarious scene that had played out in front of him when he had woken up.

Luzy looked out at the sea longingly. "God, I'd love to go for a swim and then have a decent oversized breakfast. Or even better, a brunch. But I guess either of those would kill me right now." She hung her head.

Scott got up, holding out his hand to her to pull her up. "How about we get you to your hotel, then you can see whether you survive a shower. If you do, the worst is over and you could proceed to trying your hand at having food."

They went up to where they were pretty sure the main street must be to go and get a cab for Luzy. On their way, they met Belle.

"Thank god, there you are!"

Much to Scott's astonishment, it wasn't only Luzy who got a fierce hug, but him too.

"Wooh, wooh, wooh! What was that?"

Luzy still tried to recover from the hug that had set her head spinning again.

"I'm just glad I found you and that the two of you are okay. We were really really worried. Best you come with me, back to Daniels place. Maybe he has found out a bit more by now, and we also need to fill in Alex, he was still asleep when I left."

Scott and Luzy looked at each other, puzzled. Then both of them shrugged and followed Belle. The day was already strange enough, so they saw no sense in wondering anymore. Sooner or later someone would probably fill in the gaps.


	9. Chapter 9

Back at the house they all settled and Daniel told his story again. He hadn't found out any more, authorities kept everyone away from the crime scene. That was, in fact all he had been able to establish. An accident had been ruled out and what the police was facing was an actual murder.

None of them felt too happy with that knowledge and the fun of the night before seemed far away. By now, Grace had also arrived at Daniels place. Having been sent away by the police she had called Daniel to find out where the others were and joined them half an hour later.

It turned out that none of the actors had known the man who had been killed personally, but even knowing that he had been part of the production brought the whole thing way closer to home than any of them liked.

The only halfway positive that came from all the news was that they had a sobering effect on Luzy. She had survived a shower and also managed to get some food down. Now she and Belle sat a bit away from the others, talking.

"It's not even a week that we left home and we are already surrounded by chaos and mayhem. As much as I enjoy the fact that for the moment, my life is far from boring, this isn't what I had in mind."

Luzy nodded grimly.

"Me neither. It's weird. I mean, seriously, who'd ever expect to come that close to an actual murder? Especially in such company?" She slowly shook her head, looking over at the others. "At least I'm pretty certain things can't go any weirder."

Belle flinched. "Don't say that."

The comment was met with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah I know. I might be superstitions, but whenever one of us says something like this, things tend to get worse. Just saying."

Luzy got up.

"You're right, that Is superstitious. You know what? We need to get out of here. Let's go find us some bikes or something, just get busy."

They waved goodbye to the others, who sat around in some kind of circle with Grace trying to reach their chief of production.

Biking turned out to haven been a wonderful idea. The weather was gorgeous, if a bit warm for Belles taste. They made their way around town, discovering several nice spots and unexpected photo ops. They had lunch in a tiny little restaurant that could hold a maximum of 8 people, where the chef served the food personally to the table and afterwards came asking how they had liked it. The girls and he were fast friends within an hour. For dessert, they went down to the beach to enjoy a generous portion of the famous Hawaiian shaved ice. The day was so good they nearly completely forgot about what had upset them so much earlier.

They decided to station their bikes at the house where Daniels apartment was, to pick them up later, and take a stroll through town before finding out what the others were up to. Somehow it nearly felt like they belonged to the guys, even though they barely knew them. Belle was pondering this thought, when Luzy punched her shoulder.

"Ouch. What the…?"

Luzy looked at her. "Remember when you said I shouldn't claim things couldn't get any weirder? You were right. What are they doing here? And, does it only seem to me as if they are sneaking around the locked area where they found the dead guy?"

Without really noticing, the girls had gotten closer back to the crime scene than they had intended. Belle followed Luzys pointing finger.

"That can't be right. What even?" Belles squinted. But what she saw remained the same. The guys down at the crime scene looked way to much like Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki. "This is a true supernatural moment. And I repeat. What even?"

Luzy didn't have any explanation either, so decided to label this a coincidence (while both of them ignored the fact that they remembered a line Chin had said during one of the Hawaii episodes about coincidences taking an awful lot of planning) and go back to their bikes. Both of them kept looking back though, trying to find out what Jensen and Jared where doing.

"Wait a moment." Belle pulled Luzy around the corner of a house and looked closely. "Call me paranoid, but that most definitely doesn't look like they are around just for fun. What do they think they are doing there? Did anyone tell them that they are not Sam and Dean?"

Luzy glanced over her shoulder. She watched Jensen carefully looking around himself, noting all the cops, taking in the security measures that had been taken, then saying something to Jared and finally going off into the opposite direction of where the girls stood.

"That was major weird… I wonder what they did there."

They looked at each other, and said it together.

"Let's go find out."


	10. Chapter 10

"Wow, we are a pathetic pair of detectives." Belle sat down on the closest bench. There adventure hadn't taken longer than ten minutes, then they had lost track of Jared and Jensen.

"We just lack training. But as far as I remember we have the best possible coaches just one phone call away." The thought of Scott made her grin.

Belle let out a snorting laugh. "Yeah right. Let's go back and tell them we need some training in detective work, so that we can go after two crazy actors from a tv show. That will totally not make us sound like the creepiest fangirls in the history of fangirling."

"You got a point there. Well then more subtle. But the others are a good cue, shall we find out whether there's any news? Also…"

Belle looked at her friend.

"Let me finish that for you… you are hungry?"

All Luzy could do was nod and shrug. It wasn't her fault that her body constantly yearned for food.

"I bet the others didn't yet eat. How about we get some pizza somewhere on the way and bring it back?"

They sat out to turn the plan into action, and about a quarter of an hour later they returned to Daniels place with a stack of pizza cartons. Grace opened the door.

"Oh god, you are saints! I'm starving. Come in. The guys should be back any minute, they had to report down to the police. They'll most likely also want to talk to you tomorrow, but since we didn't have any means to take hold of you guys, we told them we'd send you over tomorrow morning, hope that's alright." She informed them while helping Belle to set down the pizza cartons on the table.

"What do they want with us?" Belle asked, confused.

"Well, you also were at the Party down at the beach, right? And the body of this poor guy has turned up not too far away from where you had your camp fire. I'm still sad I missed it, you guys must have had quite some fun, judging by Alex' hang over and the stories Scott tells."

Luzy flinched. "What stories?"

Grace giggled. "Oh. Picked locks. Windows. That kind of stuff" she said matter-of-factly.

Belle shot Luzy a questioning look. "Did I miss something there?"

The arrival of the guys spared Luzy the necessity of an answer, but she knew that most likely, sooner or later she'd be forced to tell the tale.

Pizza turned out to have been a great idea for all three of the guys literally jumped at the food. The next minutes all of them spent in silence, happily munching away. Only when the first nagging hunger had been stilled, Scott started to talk about what had been going on at the police department.

"It's unreal. They kept us all apart and asked questions about what we did last night, who was with us, how long we stayed at the beach and such. They also asked whether we have seen anything … strange, but when I asked what that would be, they wouldn't answer. This is all rather weird, if anyone asks me."

The other two nodded. Alex still looked rather hung over and Belle thought that Daniel looked genuinely worried. Grace seemed to have noticed, too.

"Daniel? What's wrong?"

He looked up, a wry smile on his face.

"Apart from the fact, that we have not yet been ruled out as suspects in a murder investigation?" He let the comment take hold for a while before he continued. "But that's not it. While they questioned me, I overheard a conversation regarding the way the guy has died. And someone said everything pointed to him having been hanged. Which caused some disbelief, because, from what I could hear, when they found him he lay flat on the ground, face towards the ground. And we all know the place down at the beach. There are no trees around nor is there anything else where you could hang yourself."

They considered that for a while, before Alex spoke up.

"That only means that he's probably been killed somewhere else, and then been dumped on the beach for whatever reason."

Daniel shook his head.

"See, that's where it all gets very, very weird. The guy who had questioned me made the same suggestion to his colleague. Who then told him, that from what the medical examiner was willing to say so far, it looks like the beach is very likely also the place where the guy was killed."

"But that doesn't make sense" Grace put in.

Daniel nodded. "Tell me about it."

A moment later, a vivid discussion started about what all this might mean, and how they could go about to find out what really had happened. The wildest theories got thrown around and everyone bounced ideas of each other. Alex, Daniel and Grace got so caught up in their discussion that they didn't really notice that Luzy and Belle only gave the eventual comment to all the things that were said, and for the rest of the time, silently talked to each other or simply listened. For a long time, Scott didn't say anything. When he finally did, he made sure to get everyone's attention by very audibly demanding "Silence!" That was met with rather confused looks from the others and he smiled apologetically.

"Guys… I hate to break that to you but… we are not cops. What has happened is disturbing and it's terrible but it's not our job to solve this. So do me a favor and don't get carried away, okay? I mean, despite all the bad ass cop shit we do on set, all we are likely to do is obstruct the investigation and be a general hindrance. That being said, can we please try and talk about something else? Cause this is depressing." That at least got everyone back into reality. But Scott wasn't done yet.

"And the two of you, madwoman and wonderwoman… I have no idea what kind of crazy idea you are hatching back there, but: forget it."

Both of them managed to look so surprised and hurt at the same time, that Scott immediately felt sorry.

"Excuse me? We are not hatching anything, we just didn't take part in the crazy discussion. If that's hatching, well then, I plead guilty as charged." Belle said calmly.

Luzy nodded her consent.

Scott scratched his head. "Maybe my voice of reason got a little carried away there, sorry."

The girls nodded. Belle waited for Scott to turn his attention somewhere else and then whispered: "Let's discuss that later, when daddy isn't listening." Luzy only gave her a thumbs up and grinned.


	11. Chapter 11

After everyone had calmed down, they spent a rather relaxing evening with eating pizza and just talking and joking around. Luzy und Belle got the others to tell funny stories from the set and when everyone finally left it was well past midnight.

"And another expensive trip by cab" Belle remarked. "Since we are obviously good celebrity company, I'd suggest that next time we travel, first thing we do is find out where the rich and famous live and THEN book a hostel. That would make life infinitely more cheap."

They made their way up the street when Luzy suddenly stopped. "Oh wow. I didn't think our plan would come to pass THAT fast. Fancy taking our poor detective work from this afternoon up a notch and give it a try again?" She motioned up the street with her head, where two guys where obviously having a heated discussion while trying to fight it out as silently as possible.

"Look who's back. The Winchester wannabes. Well then Off we go."

They waited till the guys had settled whatever argument they were having and then followed them down the street. Both of them felt rather adventurous, but looking at each other they also saw that they both weren't so sure that this was a good idea. But since they were already here, they figured they might as well go through with it.

"I don't believe it, they really go back to the crime scene." Belle whispered. The spot where the body had been found was still locked off by yellow tape. There was no patrol visible though, and so the girls weren't really surprised when Jensen and Jared didn't as much as glance at it before making their way past it. They looked disturbingly at ease with that, giving up the impression that this wasn't the first crime scene they intruded on.

"Think we can risk to get a bit closer? I'd really like to know what they are up to. I mean seriously? Next thing you know, they'll make a hole somewhere and bring out the rock salt…" Belle grumbled. She heard Luzy stifle a laugh.

"That's not funny. I mean. It's weird enough that we are sneaking up behind them, but what do they think they are doing there?"

Luzy nudged her shoulder.

"I don't know, but it would be easier to catch a bit of what they are saying if you'd shut up for a moment."

Belle set out to commentate that but she knew that Luzy was right, and thus shut her mouth. They had to strain their ears really hard to hear anything at all, with the constant sound of the sea in the background.

The things they could hear were rather disturbing. Jensen said something about the need of gaining access to the body to confirm their theory. Jared followed up with a rather disgruntled comment, of which all they could hear was "not like it's a script". They got into a discussion which revolved around the police and the fact that they obviously had no idea what they were dealing with.

"And it should stay like this, for better or worth. Enough people know already, it's getting harder" Jensen said, and the undertone in his voice suggested that any protest from Jared would be fruitless.

Then they went down closer to the shore line and got out of earshot. Moving closer would compromise their cover, so they decided to let it go for the moment. Instead, they made themselves a bit more comfortable in their hiding place and looked at each other.

Belle shook her head. "He sounds just like Dean, seriously. Are they on some kind of role play trip? If not, all I can think of is drugs. Unbelievable." But Luzy could tell from the look on Belles face that she was not satisfied with either of the two explanations and was thinking really hard.

A moment later, they heard the guys come back and hunched deeper into the shadow, hoping that they were hidden well enough to stay invisible. The girls waited quite some time before reemerging onto the street.

"That wasn't really informative, but still disturbing enough. I just can't make any sense out of this…" Belle kept on muttering silently, trying to get closer to an idea of what was going on by talking herself there. Luzy, being a more hands on person, took her friends arm and pulled her closer to the yellow tape.

"How about we have a look at what is down there? Maybe everything makes more sense afterwards."

Belle looked at her in utter disbelief. "Which part of 'do not cross' on that pretty little line there do you not understand? Are you nuts?"

Luzy shrugged. "It's not like we can ruin any evidence, can we? There have been at least 20 police guys running around this morning, and god knows who else."

Belle protested for a while but in the end curiosity got the better of her. "Oh well, right. But let's hurry, I don't think we do need anyone seeing us sneaking around here."

The trek down the beach proved disappointing, to say the least.

"There's nothing here but sand. And a lot of yellow tape." Belle looked around. "I mean, how could anyone hang himself here? The next trees are what, 25 meters away? Also, what do you hang yourself with, down here? This is ridiculous. Where's Sherlock when you need them? And what the hell got into us, trying to find anything out by ourselves anyway?"

Luzy didn't answer, but stood, back to her friend, looking up the street.

"Belle?"

"Yes?"

"In case you feel any need to explain to the the police what we are doing down here, now would be the time to go back to the street. If you don't, … run!"

One short look up the beach told her that Luzy was right. The car slowly heading down the street was definitely a police car, and judging by the extremely slow pace, it was here to have a look at the crime scene in passing.

The girls ran. Whether or not they had been seen they could not be sure. They just made their way far down the beach, with Luzy way ahead of Belle. The sand wasn't exactly the easiest ground to run on, especially not with flimsy sandals that weren't meant for such endavours.

They ran for a good ten minutes before daring to stop and catch their breath. It took Belle a while to catch up with Luzy. When she had reached her friend, she let herself fall backwards into the sand.

"And another thing… crossed of … my list of things… I thought.. I'd never be doing. ..Running from the police" she panted. Luzy settled down next to her, legs crossed.

"Yeah, let's not do that again."

Belle couldn't help it, she had to laugh. All the tension of the day released itself in a rather hysterical fit of laughter, in which she soon was joined by Luzy. It took them quite a while to recover.

"That was probably the most stupid thing we've ever done."

Luzy agreed. "And we are still none the wiser."

Belle pushed herself up on her elbows. "Do we have any idea where we are or any means to find out? Cause if I had a choice, I'd rather try to brainstorm what we do know at home, in my bed, instead of out here, where a crazy killer is on the loose."

It turned out that it only had seemed to Belle like they had gone into the middle of nowhere. They made it back to the street pretty fast, and getting hold of a cab to get them home wasn't a problem either. Back at their hostel, they both took a shower and then went to their room. They discussed and tossed around possibilities till way into the morning, but all they managed was to work up an even bigger confusion than before. Nothing seemed to make sense.

The last thing Luzy said was "I always said these guys aren't good for us."

"Dangerous men they are" Belle replied, but Luzy already didn't hear that anymore and Belle fell asleep only moments later.


	12. Chapter 12

"Belle…"

"..hmrg?"

"Your phone… it's ringing…"

Belle didn't open her eyes but stretched out her arm to find her mobile on the nightstand, where she had put it the night before. With some difficulties, she managed to grab it, and while doing so at least opened one eye wide enough to find the right button to answer.

"Hm? Who's that…?" The words came out rather indistinct.

"Are you girls out of your mind? What did possess you to go and break into a crime scene?"

The rather unfriendly tone but most of all the volume made Belle jerk up in her bed.

"What the… Alex? Is that you?" While she tried to get awake, she wrecked her brain for clues as to where Alex had gotten her phone number, 'cause she had definitely not given it to him, and how it was possible for him to know of their nightly adventure.

"Yes. It's me. And I'm still waiting for an answer? What the hell where you thinking? Or rather, why DIDN'T you stop to think?"

"We did…we just. How do you even KNOW that we were there?" she asked.

"The police told me."

"The… what? Oh no. When? What… okay, now I'm properly confused. If they know it was us, how come that I'm talking to you and not to some police guy?" While she asked all that, she lightly kicked Luzy, who had fallen asleep again, in the side to wake her up again.

"Because I told them that it couldn't have been you 'cause the two of you were with me last night."

"We were? Okay, no, that wasn't exactly an intelligent question. I still don't comprehend…but. Thanks. Seriously."

He grumbled. "Yeah. However, in case someone asks, you were here. Till about nine, when you left to your place. I'll come and pick you up later and take you to the station so that you can make your statements. And you promise not to do anything stupid until then, understood?"

Belle nodded. Then she realized he couldn't see that. "I nodded. So yes. I mean, no, we wont do anything stupid. Alright, I'll hang up now, I'm way too tired to make any sense right now. Laters." She hung up and looked at Luzy. "We were at Alex' place last night. He'll pick us up and take us to the police so that we can make our statements there. Oh wow. Now I sound like a parrot. I'm confused. I'll go take a shower."

Luzy could only hope that it was possible to get hold of some coffee, and that quick. Otherwise it might take a while to get any sense out of Belle. About half an hour later, when Belle returned, Luzy was relieved to see that her friend had already taken care of the coffee matter.

"Thank god you've got coffee. Now would you please rewind and tell me again what exactly was going on earlier?"

Belle drowned the cup of coffee.

"That's my second one, mind you, and I'm still not really any smarter. Fact is, Alex called – where ever he got my number – and told me that the police told him they had seen us down at the beach, which made him tell them that that couldn't be 'cause we were with him last night until around nine this morning. That, in itself, makes sense and is rather helpful. But now, there are a lot of questions. How do they know it was us? Why did Alex lie to them? And what the hell are we going to do if they find out that he did?"

She settled herself on the bed and poured another cup of coffee.

"You might want to take this a little slower, otherwise you'll just end up acting like a hyperactive squirrel again. I guess the police don't really know it was us, but suspect. A suspicion that has ideally been refuted by the alibi Alex has given us." She paused. "Oh god, did I just use the world alibi in connection to us? This can't be good."

A moment of silence followed, then Luzy spoke up again.

"Guess that makes Alex our regular deus ex machina. Always there to safe us when we last expect him. Rather chivalrous of him, really." She grinned.

Belle grumbled. "We'd be way better off if we didn't need his saving acts all the time. I remember a time when we were smart, seemingly organized women who could take care of themselves without getting into new trouble every five minutes. What happened? Did we leave all that back on the mainland?"

The question remained unanswered because Belles phone rang again.

"Yes?... Yeah, we are still here, and no, we are not in trouble. I'm in the middle of my third cup of coffee, so I can't make any promises for later but… yes… Naturally, you would… Yeah. We'll be here. Laters."

Luzy tilted her head to the side and looked at Belle. "I guess I don't have to ask who that was. You don't look too happy."

Belle took her time filling her cup for the fourth time before she answered. "No. I'm not. I'm never happy when I'm bossed around and believe me, Mr. O'Loughlin is in McGarrett mode. And I'd much rather have Scott on the receiving end of that than me. It's way more amusing."

Luzy refrained from any comment on that, and the girls got themselves ready. They had just locked the door to their room and went outside, when they heard a car on the drive way. Belle turned to see a Landrover come up to the house. She had to smile. It suited Alex, and she liked big cars. Always had.

When the car came to a halt, Luzy wasted no time getting in the back, grinning at Belle over her shoulder. "Front seat is all yours, love."

Belle got into the car after her, holding on to what by now was her fifth cup of coffee in her favorite thermo cup that she had brought to Hawaii, much to Luzys amusement.

Alex looked at her, at the cup, then back at her. "Do I want to know how many of these you already had?"

Belle shrugged. "No, but you'll find out sooner or later anyway" she said with a little grin.

Instead of starting the car, Alex turned round in his seat, facing first Luzy and then Belle. He took a deep breath and was just about to start something that Belle feared would be a rather lengthy and unnecessary lecture on stupidity, reason and caution. She was faster than him, though.

"Stop it right there, Alex."

"I didn't even…"

"No, but you wanted to. Save your breath. I guess Luzy and I both know that we were stupid, that we took an unnecessary risk, that all this is none of our business. We know. And I'm sorry and thanks that you covered up for us. Eventhough I still don't understand why the police would tell you of their suspicion. Anything else I forgot that you'd have liked to mention?"

Alex sighed. "No. I guess not. And for the question about how I happen to know that they suspected that it was you, they told me when I went back there. "

Luzy chimed in from behind. "You know I'm still wondering about? When they told you they suspected us, why would you immediately leap to the conclusion that they were right and that we were in need of an alibi? … wow that still sounds disturbing."

Alex turned to look at her. "Are you serious? I saw you yesterday. While we were busy making wild theories, the two of you kept to yourselves, clearly plotting something. After Scott tried to be all big daddy with you and you at least looked like you really weren't doing any scheming after all, I decided to give you the benefit of the doubt. Which turned out to have been a mistake, as I found out this morning."

There was no arguing that. Belle took another swing from the coffee cup and then asked "Why did you go back?"

Alex tensed a little. "'Cause I was up fairly early this morning and out for a run. I went along the beach and wanted to circle the locked off area, when I saw two guys hanging around within the restricted area, looking like they were scanning the crime scene for something. I have no idea what they were doing there, but I'm pretty certain they were neither cops nor simply there for what you'd call morbid curiosity. So back home, I called the officer who had taken my statement yesterday. He thanked me, saying that those definitely had been no cops out there. He then told me that this was the second report of someone intruding on the crime scene, told me about what the patrol had seen last night and asked whether I'd happen to know where the two of you are. I told him, as a matter of fact I did, that you'd just gone home from my place and that I could bring you by later. That's it."

Belle turned to Luzy. "They've gone back again? How stupid can you be? As if they didn't know already that there was nothing."

"Wait a moment, you know who that was? What is going on here?"

Belle didn't pay him any attention. "Luzy, that's got to mean something, I mean, they can't only be here for fun, right? And all the things they said last night… "

Luzy frowned. "True. But imagine us telling this to the police, they'll call us mental. Plus there's no proof. I don't know. This is all kinds of crazy."

Belle nodded vigorously. "Totally."

That was when Alex lost his patience. "Is anybody going to tell me what all this is about? If you girls know these guys, either you'll tell the police or I will. Are you nuts? You can't simply sit in my car and discuss details of a murder investigation and then decide not to share that with the police. What kind of crazy people are you?"

Belle turned to him. "And that is coming from a guy who hands out alibis to people that he barely knows? For all you know we could be responsible for all this. You've been more dead than alive two nights ago, I could have gone god knows where without you noticing. Plus, you've no idea what we've been up to last night and still you throw yourself in, posing as saving grace."

It was clearly visible that she'd hit home well with that. Alex didn't like a word of it, and yet he had to admit she was right. He didn't know a thing about the girls apart from the fact that they could be rather amusing and that Scott was more than just a bit smitten with Luzy.

"Great. You know, you girls appeared suddenly out of nowhere three days ago, and since then everyone is acting crazy. Scott goes off on adventure trips, I get into a drinking duell with the drinking demon in the back, we all gather holiday camp style in Daniels flat, everyone suddenly wants to go on an insane hunt for a murderer, and now you guys plan on keeping information from the police within my earshot. You are a nightmare."

The look Belle gave him wasn't that easy to take.

"Excuse me, WE are driving you guys to do crazy things? Last time I looked, Luzy and me were a little more daring and colorful than most people we know, but still rational human beings who made a lot of sense. Only since we kind of stumbled into your fab celebrity world things are hanging a little upside down. So now you tell me we made you do anything crazy? And here I was, thinking you were all grown up enough to make your own decisions. And you might not want to speak for your friends, cause they might see matters a little differently, too." She was a little proud of herself that, instead of yelling at him she managed to get all of this out nice and friendly, with only a hint of irony in her voice.

"Fine. Tell the police what you want and then we're done with this." He started the engine.

"Fine." Belle said.

"Seatbelt." Alex backed down the drive way.

Belle put it on. "Happy?"

"No."

Alex stared straight at the street in front of him. Belle looked out of the window.

"You are so married." Luzy silently said from the back.

"Shut up" it came from both front seats.


	13. Chapter 13

The police was easily satisfied with Belle's and Luzy's statements. It turned out they hadn't really suspected them anyway, they just wanted to make sure. Thus, it seemed like they wouldn't look any closer into their alibis, much to the girl's relief.

Alex was gone when they came out of the building again.

Belle and Luzy decided that it was about time for a very belated breakfast and went to find a place to eat at. After ordering a huge brunch, they settled back into their chairs, both following their trail of thoughts.

"He's not wrong though, you know." Luzy finally said.

"I know he isn't. But he'd not have to act like we are crazy mass murderers. Of course it must have sounded weird, but it wouldn't have harmed to ask a decent question instead of bringing up the blaming game." She devoured the second waffle on her plate, but even the food couldn't brighten her mood much. "Worst thing is, I feel kind of guilty and I can feel the need to apologize creep up. Dislike. But Alex aside, what do we do with the other two? Or do we simply let it go? I'm not sure I can. It would be smart, I know, but I mean, what even? What is going on? Clearly, the police have no idea, so the only lead would be finding out what Jared and Jensen are up to. Considering our poor detective skills, that might as well end in a disaster. But what then? We can hardly hang around the morgue and wait for them to turn up. Provided they didn't already go there. And why have they gone back AGAIN?"

"Belle. Breathe!" Luzy interrupted her.

"What? Oh… caffeine rambling? Sorry."

Luzy nodded. "No problem. And most of the questions are more than valid. But do we seriously want to go poke our nose into a murder investigation? That's crazy even by our standards. And if we really do that, we have to be more than careful, or else they'll simply throw us off the island."

"Yeah. Unless Alex gets to us first and skins us alive. Maybe this time we should look to Scott for saving grace, maybe he'd at least safe you."

Luzy became very occupied with her sandwich.

"Did I hear someone say my name? Morning ladies. Wonderwoman, madwoman." Scott nodded at both girls in greeting, turned around one of the empty chairs, seated himself and folded his arms on top of the back rest. "I hear you drove Alex mad? How did you do it, and can you teach me?" He happily grinned from one ear to the other.

Belle and Luzy looked at each other.

"He's obviously a little behind on the details. You fill him in if you like, he's all yours anyway" Belle said, leaning back and focusing her attention on the huge bowl of fruit salad in front of her.

Luzy was rather proud that she managed not to blush.

"I'm all, .. I'm what? What did she mean by that? Hm? Hey, madwoman? What's that supposed to mean?" When Belle wouldn't react, Scott looked at Luzy again.

"Don't even think about demanding an answer, I'll execute my right to remain silent."

Scott pulled off a really miserable face. "You are a cruel, cruel woman. From her," he nodded into Belles direction, "that was to be expected. But from you? I'm a little disappointed. But be that as it may, what details am I lacking? How did you manage to piss of Alex so royally? I'm not sure I've ever seen him in such a foul mood."

Luzy drowned the rest of her tea. "Now that does make me feel a whole lot better. Did he say anything?" When Scott shook his head, she sighed. "I'm not really sure I should tell you. Much more, I'm not really sure you want to know."

He simply smiled at her.

"Oh well. You asked for it, so do me a favor and don't go all nuts on us as Alex did." Since he had asked for it, she filled him in with all the things they knew, what they had seen and heard. The only thing she didn't tell him was who the two guys were. You never knew who knew whom with those actors, and for the moment names didn't matter much. Also, it made things look way less crazy if you didn't mention that the two people who had been seen three times at the crime scene usually investigated murders or queer accidents in order to hunt down supernatural beings on tv.

When she was finished, Scott kept silent for a long while, obviously not half as happy as he had been when he had joined them.

"I did promise not to go ballistic, right?"

Luzy nodded, rather timidly.

"Damn it. Okay, let me get this straight. You've seen those guys. You've followed them. You luckily managed not to be seen by them but unfortunately weren't that lucky regarding the police. Then Alex goes in all heroic and covers up for you, and the next thing you do is scheming to keep details that might lead to the murderer to yourself, while Alex sits next to you? You gotta admit that's not smart."

Belle looked up from her by now empty salad bowl.

"Tell us something we don't know, sunshine."

Scott decided to ignore her, before his anger went into the same direction as Alex' had.

"Also, I feel like you are holding back on some minor details. You know who these guys are, right?"

Luzy thought about lying to him for a moment, but somehow she was rather certain he wouldn't believe her.

"Yeah. I guess we do. But it's all not adding up."

"And we don't think that they've got anything to do with the murder. Actively, I mean." Belle put in.

Scott shot her a rather unfriendly look. "Do you know? Have you turned into a detective over night? Did I miss a memo? How do you want to know this? And now please, spare me the going on about gut feelings and such."

Luzy put her hand on Scotts arm.

"Enough, okay? There's no use in us picking each other apart, that won't help anybody."

Belle still looked at Scott.

"Look, I know that we didn't exactly go about all this the smartest possible way. I also know that I'm not among your most favorite people on the island. But this has nothing to do with a gut feeling or whatever you wanna call it. It's logic and pragmatism. Assuming you murdered someone, why would you hang about the crime scene while the police are there? Marveling at your own genius, bathing in the feeling that they can't catch you. Fine. Maybe that's what some crazy killer who's a bit heavy on the ego side might do. But going back to the crime scene again at night, obviously searching for something? You might have lost something during the kill, but how likely is it that the police wouldn't have found it before you? So we can cross that option, too. Then there is the coming back AGAIN, obviously dissatisfied with the previous examination. That shows a certain amount of despair. Plus, what about them saying they needed to see the body to confirm a theory? If they had murdered that poor guy, they wouldn't need a theory about him. They'd have all the facts. Conclusion, it doesn't make sense to suspect them of the murder. Whatever they are looking for, I really highly doubt that they've got anything to do with it."

She said all that rather calmly. She had no desire for another fight with someone today, and apart from the fact that he had the annoying tendency to make fun of each and everything, and sometimes caught her off guard, he was actualy a rather nice guy.

"That is disturbingly well thought through, I have to admit." Scott turned to Luzy. "You sure she doesn't have some kind of second identity where she goes out at night and either commits or solves crimes?"

She laughed. "You don't know how much we fail at practical detective work. The theory part is a lot easier. And what makes you think that, if she HAD a second identity indeed, I'd not know about it, or have one, too?"

"More disturbing thoughts. You really don't go easy on people, do you?"

Luzy once looked him up and down and grinned. "You look like you can handle it."

That made him light up. "I won't argue with that. How about we just forget about all this murder stuff for a while, go find us a decent space of not so crowded beach and go surfing or something? Madwoman can come to, if she likes" he added with a glance at Belle.

"Madwoman my ass. Careful mister, you might want to remember that there's always the possibility of me throwing things at you to knock you over."

Scott distorted his face in painful memory. "Okay, okay I'll go easy on you. So. Deal? Do we go?"

After a bit off haggling back and forth regarding organizational matters, Scott left them for a while to get his car, so that he could drive them home to pick up their beach wear and then go and find a spot a bit farther off the crowded Waikiki beach.

Luzy looked rather happy, which amused Belle to no ends. Her friend decided to ignore the "I know exactly what you are thinking" face Belle had put on.

"Am I the only one who feels a little adopted by the guys? Or did we adopt them without noticing?" she asked.

Belle shrugged. "No idea. But I know what you mean. And it could be worse, really. I mean, minus the murder, we'd probably be having the time of our lives, right?"

Luzy looked a little disturbed. "You know what worries me? I'm not even certain we aren't having the time of our lives anyway."

"True story."


	14. Chapter 14

"No, I most certainly won't go and have Scott teach me surfing together with you. You go have fun and wow the guy." Belle gave Luzy a pretty impressive impression of the Cheshire cat smile and settled herself comfortably on the huge blanket they had brought.

"I'll watch and be very much amused by it. And once you got more or less the hang of it, you might be allowed to teach me." The grin went even broader. "And now, off you go. Have fun."

Luzy shook her head. "You are impossible."

"Yeah yeah, I know. No go and try to hide your ridiculous happiness a little better from Scott than you do it right now, otherwise he might get a little quicker on the uptake."

The fact that Luzy blushed again, amused Belle even more. "Cute."

The sand her friend kicked at her didn't please her that much. "Go play with the guy! Be gone!"

"Demon." Alex added quietly, while putting his stuff down next to Belle's and Luzy's.

Now it was on Luzy to grin. The Cheshire cat would have paled in comparison to what went on on her face. Belle simply stared at him, more than a little baffled.

"What, is there a problem?" he asked.

"I'll be off, Scott is waiting" Luzy said sweetly, turned on her heels and rushed down the beach.

"Problem? No. Confusion? Yes. I didn't necessarily expect you here, I'd have guessed we aren't the first persons who come to your mind when thinking about whom to spend the afternoon with." And would you please put a shirt on cause you are very much distracting my thoughts, she added silently.

Alex shrugged. "You aren't. But shooting is still canceled, Scott's down here and I don't trust him not to get pulled into anything stupid with the two of you. So I'd rather have an eye on the bunch of you."

Belle decided to minimize her reaction to that to a deep sigh. Then she pointedly took out the book she had brought and buried herself behind it.

"What now?"

"What now? Do you want me to list the things that unnerve me about you right now numerically or alphabetically?" she asked, not even bothering to take the book down. Alex snatched it out of her hands and looked at her.

"Okay, I'm asking again, nice and slow, what's your problem?"

"Would you mind handing that back? Thank you." Sitting up, she put the book in her lap, facing him. "What my problem is? You. Or better, your Steve McGarrett mode. Or maybe that's just who you are, I don't know, and how could I. Yes, you've kind of come to the rescue like the knight in shining amour twice. Very nice of you, and the second time around you probably really saved us a lot of trouble. But let's face the facts. A, we didn't ask for it, and whatever made you jump in and help us, don't go around blaming us for it now. B, why is it, that whenever you are around us, you feel like you need to go all bossy on us, telling us what to do and what not to? I'm not sure it registered, but apart from the fact that sometimes we get strange ideas, we are grown up women who are rather capable of taking care of ourselves. All this here..." she made an all-encompassing gesture "wasn't planned. We didn't come here with the intention to hook up with you guys or to stumble into a murder investigation. But both things have happened. If you don't like us around, fine. It's not like it's impossible to avoid us. If we don't bother you, do us all a favor and stop acting like such a dickhead." She took a deep breath, congratulating herself on the fact that she'd managed to avoid looking too closely at Alex during her little speech, otherwise she might have not gotten through it so smoothly. "Yeah. That's my complaints in a nutshell." Apart from the fact that you are way to handsome, her mind added.

"Stop that."

Alex looked mightily confused. "What NOW? I didn't even say something."

Belle blushed a rather dark shade of pink. "Sorry… I didn't, I was just... I didn't mean you."

His eyebrow went up.

Belle rolled her eyes. "I'm serious. I didn't mean to say that out loud, I was talking to myself. Never mind. You think I'm crazy anyway, so it doesn't really matter." She made an effort to hide back behind her book as gracefully as she could. Alex chuckled.

"You are mixing something up there. Scott's the one who thinks you're mad. I just think you are… let's say, a little out of bounds most of the time."

"Really. How nice of you."

She could still feel him looking at her.

"Now look, you might have gotten the one or the other thing right there. I'm not taking back that I think that you guys are way too happy to jump and act on your crazy ideas. But I probably overreacted. No, shut up, don't ruin it, I might not say that again" he said, when he saw that she was about to fire a not-so-friendly comment back. "Fact is, I'm sorry if I went a bit far with all that. Fact is, too, that I don't mind having the two of you around 'cause somehow you are fun and manage to just fit in without making a lot of fuss about who we are. Which is nice for a change. And that's it, okay? I'll try not to be so bossy if you promise to try and keep that cocky wit of yours in check every now and then."

Belle peeked over the top of her book. "Is that a peace offering?"

Alex gave her a smile. "Yeah. I guess so. It's also most likely the best and the only one you'll get."

She could hide the smile behind the book, but she couldn't keep it out of her voice when she said "Bastard. But okay. Deal. And now shut up and let me read."

She didn't read for long, though. It took about five minutes, than the things going on down at the beach became way more interesting than reading. A glance to her side told her, that Alex was watching Luzy and Scott rather intently, too.

The two of them were close to the shore, two boards in the sand in front of them, and Scott very agitatedly tried to introduce Luzy to the theory of surfing. He kept on jumping on the board, showing her some movements, then got down again and had Luzy try it on her own. Most of the time, it was only seconds before he started to push and pull on her legs and arms to make corrections. They looked a bit like a cartoon in slow motion. It went back and forth, with Scott getting more and more desperate. Luzy finally couldn't hold herself together anymore, sat down on the board and laughed so hard it made her cry.

"At least she takes it with humor. She looks so athletic, how come she's so slow on the uptake?"

Belle giggled. "Usually she isn't. Must be distracted or something."

Alex looked at her, then down to Scott and Luzy and back to Belle again. It was all he could do then to hide his face in his towel to muffle the laughter.

"Ouuuuuuuukay. Alex? You sure you are going to survive this?"

He shook his head, and it took him several moments to re-emerge, and she could see he had been laughing so much that it had made him cry.

"Care to let me join the amusement?"

He settled himself over next to her. "Look at Scott. And look closely to what he does."

Belle looked at him, rather confused. Turning her head made her realize that he was way too close for her liking but she managed to ignore it. "Why?"

Alex smiled broadly. "Just look."

She did. Some minutes later, she giggled. "Is that supposed to make any sense? His instructions are all over the place."

Alex nodded. "Nothing really makes sense. I mean, he knows what he's talking about, Scott's an amazing surfer, but something", he chuckled, "seems to distract him. He doesn't get it all together and explains things rather… haphazardly."

It was better than tv. Scott and Luzy where completely unfocussed, stealing looks at each other when the significant other wasn't looking. It was wildly hilarious and Belle and Alex where having the time of their lives.

"I feel a little bad…" Belle said, when she saw Scotts desperate face and Luzy bending over laughing for about the hundreds time. "But I regret nothing!"

Alex wasn't sure whether he was more entertained by what was going on a bit further down the beach or by Belles amusement about it.

Scott meanwhile sat down on his board.

"Okay, let's go about this a bit different. I'll explain, then I'll show you one more time, and then you go and try it. Okay?"

Luzy nodded. She'd not really learned anything so far, but she couldn't claim she didn't have a lot of fun so far. Right now however, Scott looked rather occupied with something else.

"What are they so happy about? And since when do they get along?" Scott looked over Luzys shoulder to where Alex and Belle sat.

Luzy turned around. "I guess they are amused by our non-existent genius." She said dryly. "What's to complain, though? They are rather cute like that."

"No."

She turned back to Scott. "No?"

"No. I liked them much better while they were arguing. She's madwoman after all. Who knows what ideas she's giving him, once they made peace."

Luzy threw sand on Scott. "Shut up. She's not madder than I am."

Scott gave her his "Yeah right" look and then conveniently changed the topic. "Okay, so once more from the top." He set out on a lengthy explanation about different techniques on the board.

"Scott… Scott! Stop it. My head is swimming and I'll not be able to master all those different things at once anyway. How about you explain to me how YOU do it, which is what you probably can show me easiest. And then we go for it again?"

Scott let his head hang. "I'm a failure. I'm such a failure at teaching." He pretty much resembled an unhappy teddy bear. Luzy couldn't help herself, she had to hug him.

"Not more than I am at learning, right now. Now come on, cheer up. Once more from the top? I'd at least like to master standing right on that damn board correctly before sundown."

The hug had obviously cheered him, and he nodded, aldready grinning from one ear to the other again. Both of them got up, and suddenly, learning and teaching seemed to work like a charm.

Belle and Alex still watched Luzy and Scot, admiring how they finally got forward in their lesson, and by now beaming at each other like mad.

They looked at each other, shaking their heads.

"Pathetic" they said in perfect synchrony.


	15. Chapter 15

Luzy and Scott had finally made it to the water and Alex had left for a swim, too. Belle had just taken up her book again, when someone settled next to her on the blanket. Turning around, she faced Jensen, who didn't look at her but out at the sea, arms interlaced behind his head.

"Uhm. Yeah. Hi."

Jensen still looked straight on.

"Let's skip the pleasantries. I'm just here 'cause I'd like to ask your friend and you to keep your nose out of our business and stop sneaking around behind us, making a mess. It's not utterly difficult to lose you once you try to tail us, but it's annoying. Understood?" He faced her, and she had to admit he looked rather determined. "And just for the record, next time, I won't ask that nicely."

Belle looked at him in disbelief.

"Are you aware how utterly insane you sound? I mean. Seriously?"

His expression didn't change.

"I don't give a damn what it sounds like to you. Stay out of our way, enjoy your holiday and no one's got a problem."

He managed to sound like a perfectly arrogant jerk. It drove her mad.

"Yeah right. So why don't we just go to the police and tell them who it was who sneaked around at the crime scene. Did you find what you were looking for already? Oh, and how about that trip to the morgue you planed? Already done that? Or is it still on the touristy schedule of insanity of yours?"

Jensen looked ready to strangle her.

"None of this is even remotely any of your business, you hear me? Stay away. Tell the police all you like, it won't be too hard to persuade them that you are crazy fangirls who just want attention. Plus, they already suspected you to have been at the crime scene, too, right? Telling them that you really were there would be easy. Which would also cause a little trouble in paradise for your celebrity catch there." He nodded down the beach towards the water. " And we wouldn't want that, would we?"

That made her bite back a threat of her own. Getting Alex or, for that matter, any of the other guys in trouble was nothing she'd fancy.

"You sound like you haven an awful lot of experience in threatening people. Is Jared as friendly as you are or does he at least try to keep up the pretense of being friendly and well meaning?"

For a split second, Jensen didn't look as confident and happy in his place as he had moments before, but that was over in an instant.

"That is also none of your business. Did I make myself clear?"

She nodded reluctantly.

Jensen got up, stretching himself like he'd just sat down for a friendly chat and was now about on his way again.

"Good. I hope I don't see you around."

Belle still had problems to process what was just going on. Then she called after him.

"Jensen?"

He didn't turn, but he stopped.

"Do you guys really think you can simply go out there and find a killer? That's insane."

He gave a small laugh, but it didn't sound happy. "Stranger things have happened. Stay away." Then he left. And just about soon enough, Belle thought, when only a moment later Alex came back.

"Problem? Who was that?"

Belle arranged her face back into what she hoped was a pleasant smile and turned back. "Oh, just an old acquaintance really. Funny, the people you meet when you are on holidays, right?"

He didn't look quite convinced but he let it go. It wasn't long until Luzy and Scott reappeared, too. It took Belle a moment to get her friend to understand that she needed to talk to her, but finally she managed to pry her away from Scott. Under the pretense of getting some shaved ice, they got out of earshot. Then Belle told Luzy in detail what had just happened.

"Jensen? The fuck? Do they really think they can solve this? Someone should tell them that this is not another episode of Supernatural…"

Belle nodded. "I was about to say something like that to him, but somehow I got the feeling it wouldn't hit home." She paused for a moment. "Come to think about it, he's just as much of a jerk as Dean is in the show… they obviously did cast him for a reason."

Since they had set out getting ice cream, they couldn't very well come back without some, so they made their way down the beach.

"I still don't get it. I mean sure, even we know that we failed at the tailing people stuff, so they might as well have noticed. But how does Jensen know that Alex covered for us? Or that the police had a short moment of suspicion? This gets weirder every day, and no matter what the crazy jerk says, I can't simply let it go."

Luzy nodded absentmindedly. "I hear you. Only problem I have with this is, if we go after them while they go after the killer, that's very much the same level of insanity."

Belle couldn't help but to agree. She decided to change the subject for the moment. They'd have plenty of time to come back to the rather unpleasant thoughts about a murder investigation later.

"So. How was surfing?" She grinned.

Luzy very busily scanned the people on the beach. "Nice."

"Nice? The two of you were a mess, it was hilarious. Alex and I probably had the time of our lives, watching you guys."

"Oh, did you now? Alex… and you?" Luzy said airily.

The pointed silence that followed spoke for itself.

"No, seriously. What happened? Since when can you talk to the guy without wanting to take his head off?"

"Dunno" Belle mumbled. "We kind of worked it out. For the moment. Can't guarantee how long that will last, though."

Luzy sighed. "Oh well, at least your arguments where fun to witness. Pathetic, but entertaining. So I don't mind if you start fighting again."

Belle shoved her. "YOU are the one to talk about pathetic. Really."

Luzy's face turned into one big question mark. "What?"

That made Belle laugh out loud. "Oh boy, that's way too awesome. You didn't realize, huh? Brilliant." She giggled happily.

"What did I not realize?"

Belle shook her head. "Oh, nothing. Never mind. There we are." She stopped in front of the ice cream cart and made it very clear that her sole purpose right now was to decide for a flavor. Luzy sighed. She knew she'd not get anything more out of her friend.

They settled down, each of them happily attacking their huge portions of ice.

"So. What do we do about all this? Trying to find out what is going on by ourselves? I'd guess our chances to hit anything helpful are pretty slim" Luzy contemplated.

"I really have no idea. Maybe Jensen is right. Maybe we should keep out of this. If only my head knew that, too. I keep on going over this in my head again and again, but the more I think about it, the less sense it makes. A dead guy by the beach, hung with invisible rope on a none-existing tree, two actors going after this for some reason, a clueless police department. Sounds like the stuff very cheap novels are made of."

Luzy agreed. "Yeah. Or fan fictions. Wow. We walked into a fan fiction. Someone care to check the Matrix, maybe it's just a bug or something, and all will be back to normal soon?"

Belle grinned. "De-bugging sounds fine, but can we settle that the only bug here is the murder? I like the rest pretty well…"

To that, Luzy had nothing to add but a happy chuckle.


	16. Chapter 16

A quick note from yours truly again :)

I've not watched more than season 1 and parts of season 2 of supernatural so far. I have a rather hazy idea about what happens after that, but details elude me. As we continue in the story, you might realise that I'm way more familiar with five-0 than I am with SPN ... please forgive my ignorance regarding several things. I've done some artistic twists and turns that allow me to do so. I hope that will also satisfy the more devoted SPN lovers that might find their way here.

Other than that, thank you very much for reading and if you did, I'd love to read from you.

Now, without much further ado, the next chapter. Enjoy!

* * *

><p>The next days turned out to be everything the girls had wished for in their get-away. They took tours round the island on their bikes, spent days on end on the beach and took a two day trip to the big island. The murder investigation and even Jared and Jensen receded more and more into the back of their minds. In a night of discussing the matter after Belles encounter with Jensen, they had finally come to the conclusion that, as much as it bugged them, there really was nothing they could do. So they had decided to let it go and enjoy their time, a decision they hadn't yet regretted.<p>

Since shooting had resumed the day after Luzys surfing lesson, they hadn't seen much of the guys apart from meeting for dinner with Scott and Daniel one night. The shooting schedule had become even fuller than usual because the crew had to make up for the three lost days and the guys had looked rather tired. It was a pity really, but the girls didn't really feel like intruding on the little spare time the team had left after a day full of work.

It turned out however, that they needn't worry. They had just finished breakfast when Luzys phone rang. The more than happy grin on her face after she answered it didn't leave much doubt for Belle as to who was on the other end.

About ten minutes later they were on their way to pay the set another visit.

"He said they'd have some rather spectacular explosions and stunts and stuff so… yeah. Sounds good to me."

Belle grinned.

"And seeing Scott has nothing to do with it, it's all for guns and stunt men, right?" Teasing Luzy about Scott was way too much fun to refrain from it.

"Pffft. Tease me all you like, I'll get back to you on that once you are happily reunited with Alex."

That shut Belle up for a while. She wouldn't admit it out loud for the life of her, but her thoughts had went way too closely along exactly those lines that Luzy had just implied.

On set the first person they met was Grace. She seemed happy enough to see the girls and took charge over getting them the best (and safest) places to watch the shooting of the action scenes. Only when the director rather agitatedly called for her did she leave.

"Why is everybody always so pleased to see us?" Belle wondered.

Luzy snorted. "I guess it's our entertainment factor. Also, there's always Jensen and Jared if you want someone who's unhappy about our existence."

Belle considered that for a moment and then had to grin. "Maybe. Then again, it's totally possible that Jared is actually a nice guy, and just doesn't get in a word too often with Mr. Grumpy."

The thought of Jensen and Jared fighting like an old married couple entertained them a lot, especially because they managed to keep all the unpleasant things related to the guys out of their minds. Then the people on set started to move into position and the girls attention was completely captured for the next hours of rehearsing, shooting and re-shooting.

When the team finally wrapped up, it had already started to go dark.

Luzy and Belle made their way through all the equipment and a lot of crew members in search of Scott. They had actually planned to meet for lunch, but then the weather forecast had promised rain for the afternoon, so the lunch break got cancelled. When no rain arrived, the crew had decided to seize the moment and went on shooting. So Scott had sent a message that complained about this lack of a break in great length and made Luzy promise they'd not leave the set without at least saying hi. Belle had mocked her for the better of an hour about that, and was just thinking about taking it up again, when they heard the first rumors from two chattering script girls.

"Really, there was another attack, but from what I heard no one got killed. It got close though."

"What? Where? When?"

"I heard it was someone rather famous, an actor or something, and then I thought it might have been someone from the set… but it seems it was someone else. I don't know."

"Oh that's terrible…"

The girls disappeared behind one of the trailers, leaving Luzy and Belle looking at each other, rather horrified.

"I told him it was insane…" Belle said silently. She didn't get to say anything more.

"Hey, there you are!" A beaming Scott made his way over to them, hugging Luzy, obviously happy to see her. Then he looked at her more closely, then to Belle, then back to Luzy again. "What? What's wrong? Anything happened?"

Luzy pulled herself together. "No. Well, I don't know. We just heard rumors about another attack on someone? Something related to … well. The murder down at the beach?"

Scotts face fell. "Yeah, I heard that too. There are no details though. Everyone seems to have heard the same but no one knows anything in particular. Attack on some guy, probably some celebrity, someone tried to strangle him or something. But that's all. No one's even sure whether that's related to the murder or just a coincidence."

Luzy frowned. Belle and she knew well enough that this was very likely no coincidence at all, but discussing that would have to wait.

"Now don't look so horrified, I'm sure everything will be okay in the end. How about we wait for Alex, Daniel and Grace and then go and grab some food? That will take your mind of all those rumors. Deal?"

There was nothing to do but to agree, even though food was the last thing on their minds right now. They knew all they could do was to wait for the rumors to become more reliable information and until then, they'd do well to distract themselves.

Once at the restaurant, they tried to take part in the discussions and jokes as much as possible, but the girls had a hard time to pretend they weren't otherwise preoccupied. All they could do was to hope for the others not to notice. After dinner, they went over to a nearby beach bar, and when Luzy went to get drinks for Belle and her, Scott took Belle aside.

"Okay, what's going on? Did I do something wrong? Is everything okay with Luzy?"

Belle couldn't help but smile. The genuine concern in Scotts voice was rather endearing.

"Scott, relax. Everything is fine, okay? You didn't do anything wrong and Luzy is okay. She's just a bit tired, we both didn't really sleep much last night and then there were these unsettling rumors. It just all comes together at the moment. No worries, though, okay? Tomorrow all will be fine again. Promise."

Scott looked at her hard for a moment, then relief spread over his face. "Okay. Good. You won't tell her that I asked right? I mean. I was just concerned really and…"

"No I won't. Promise again. And now off you go, or she'll sense conspiracy when she sees us together. You might want to remember that you actually dislike me with a passion." But she said that friendly enough. Scott ruffled his hair, gave her a lopsided grin and went off.

"You are a pretty impressive liar."

Alex' voice made Belle jump.

"For heavens sake, how often do I have to tell you? Stop that! One day you'll be the death of me."

"Sorry. But you're avoiding the subject."

She leaned on the closest table, looking straight at Alex. "Which subject? You calling me a liar? The fact that you added 'impressive' doesn't make the insult any nicer, you know."

Alex seated himself on the bench next to her.

"It's not an insult. It's an observation. Managing to lie to Scott isn't that easy, so hats off to you. But that doesn't change the fact that Luzy is visibly upset and so are you."

The remark hit way to close to home. The fact that she didn't manage to conceal her real emotional state combined with the cluelessness about the overall situation didn't help to improve her mood.

"Oh well hello there, Mr. Freud."

He sighed. "You really are a piece of work, but I guess I'm not the first to tell you."

"I can't begin to imagine what made you think so. I need a drink." She got up and left him where he was, joining Luzy and Grace at the bar. She ignored the quizzical look Luzy gave her after looking from Alex to her, and picked up her cocktail from the bar.

When Grace had gone, Luzy whispered "Been driving people away with your charmes again?" That earned her a kick into the shin, and she decided to drop it for the moment.

The first round of drinks was rather tensed, with Scott being careful about the things he said, Alex and Belle not talking and Daniel and Grace clueless in the middle about what might be wrong. By round two, Scott captured most of the attention around the table with trying to make Luzy and Daniel go into a drinking duel. Grace tried to be the voice of reason, while Luzy tried to make Scott stop and threatened him with all kinds of things in case he wouldn't. Alex filled Daniel in with advises on how to outdrink Luzy, trying to prevent his friend from failing like he did. They all enjoyed themselves a lot.

Belle decided that drink number three might brighten her mood and accomplish what the two before had failed to achieve. Waiting for it at the bar, she scanned the other people sitting around it and spied Jensen at the far end, whiskey bottle in front of him. It didn't look like he'd bothered with a glass. When her drink had arrived she payed and made her way over to him.

"Jensen?" she asked carefully. When he looked up it was plain to see that he'd already had plenty of that whiskey, but his voice sounded steady enough.

"You again. I thought I made myself clear."

Belle leaned on the chair next to him. "You did, no worries. Believe it or not, it's pure coincidence that we ended up at the same bar. Blame them." She pointed behind her to the table she'd just left. Then she looked back at him.

"Can I ask you something?"

He shrugged.

She didn't look at him, but somewhere down the beach.

"We heard rumors… about another attack. I first thought it was you, but you are obviously here and apart from being impressively drunk, you look okay. So…" She had a really hard time getting out the question, and in the end settled for simply one word. "Jared?"

His voice was sober and he looked furious when he answered.

"How often do I have to tell you? This is NONE of your business, keep out, keep away, don't go around asking stupid questions okay? Just leave me the hell alone."

Belle knew that leaving would certainly be the smarter option, but then again, when had she ever done what she deemed smartest?

"Look, this is all totally crazy. We know who you guys are, I've watched your stupid tv show time and time again, and even though I know I've got nothing to do with you and Jared, and it's none of our business, it still feels like I kind of know you, okay? That's far from the truth, I know, but it still doesn't change the fact that it kind of… I don't know. Feel affected by the idea that one of you idiots got hurt."

He glared at her. "Yeah. That's crazy. You are one hell of a crazy lady. And you are right. You know nothing. Absolutely nothing." With that, he snatched the whiskey bottle from the bar and vanished.

She took her time returning to the others, just to realize that they had all kind of moved places, by now trying to build a card house of a rather elaborate design out of beer coasters. Luzy had the most fun, cause obviously, she had devised the whole design and enjoyed herself very much with giving instructions to the others while emptying first her own and then Scotts drink. He was way too busy trying to prove that her design was utterly impossible to build to notice.

The only free space was next to Alex so Belle sat down and tried not to look as upset as she was. She nodded towards the card house and then looked at Alex.

"How did she get them going? Dared Scott?"

The amusement on his face was answer enough.

"Thought so." She turned back to watch the others in their rather fruitless endeavor, but she could still feel him looking at her. "I'm good Alex, okay? A little upset, a little confused, but okay. I'll live. And so will Luzy. And now please, please stop it. The last thing I need right now is an emotional break-down that makes me think about all the bullshit that's going on."

To her surprise, he nodded and let it go.

"Thanks."


	17. Chapter 17

Waking up next morning didn't come without a headache.

"Oh dear lord, how much more often did we go back to the bar?" she murmured.

"You didn't go anywhere, you had your drinks delivered."

Most definitely not Lucys voice.

Belle sat up rather rapidly, only to pay her due to gravitation and the countless drinks from the night before. She simply fell over and crashed into Alex, who was lying next to her.

"Yeah right… ouch…that didn't hurt at all."

She took her time to answer.

"Tell me about it. Do I have to ask myself what I'm doing in your bed or can I curse you for having infiltrated mine?"

Alex groaned. "Did someone ever tell you that your way to eloquent when you should be suffering from a near death experience?"

Belle grumbled.

"I'd kick you if you weren't so darn comfortable right now. And no. You have the honor of being the first."

"Pleasure."

She had to laugh but that made her head hurt. "Oh well, maybe I do like you. A little. But seriously. Seems like I pulled a Luzy, my recollection of last night is rather hazy."

Alex chuckled. He sounded way too amused for her liking but there was no changing that. She made herself a bit more comfortable but didn't really feel the need to get more distance between herself and him. He WAS rather comfortable.

"Well, after the card house turned into a spectacular fail and the bar wanted to close, we decided that my house was the next best thing considering the alcoholic equipment, so we all settled over here. When happily drunk, Luzy came up with the idea of a slumber party, so she raided my closet. Much to her disappointment there weren't any pajamas to find, so she started handing out boxer shorts and shirts." He seemed to be rather amused by his tale, and when Belle peered down on herself she couldn't help but see his point. She obviously had skipped the boxer shorts (for which she was grateful) but she was wearing a shirt with the most hideous pattern she'd ever seen.

"I really hope you don't wear that in public…" she said.

"I'll refrain from commenting on that. Anyway, we had quite some fun, Scott ruined two of my favorite shirts cause he insisted on buttoning them up and then Luzy tried to teach him yoga… He kept on falling over, roaring with laughter, something I've yet to understand. However, while they were trying to kill themselves in the most athletic fashion, you found the bottle of Captain Morgan in the bar."

She pulled up the blanket and hid her head under it. "Just don't tell me anything else. I'm about to die of pre-emptive shame."

Of course he didn't listen. He pulled the blanket away.

"I must say, I was rather impressed with the amounts of rum you drowned. What I also learned is, that Captain Morgan is the only rum you do not object to, and that I gained some brownie points by owning a bottle. At some point, you decided that it was about time for a pirate song competition. Unfortunately, you didn't know any, so you persuaded Daniel to join you and together you made some up. I'll very likely never forget any of this in all my life. The two of you, sitting on the counter in the kitchen, singing non-existent pirate songs at the top of your lungs. It was… I don't know. I still lack a word for a proper description."

"Epic" Belle helped him out, sounding rather miserable. "Do I wanna know how I ended up here?"

Alex chuckled again. "Luzy and Scott."

"Come again?"

"See, you were rather out of bounds after the singing, and so was Daniel. The two of you were all over the place. I really have no idea what you did to him, he can party alright but I've never seen him losing it THAT much. Yeah. I think epic is the only word that does it justice. However, the alcohol took its toll eventually. Grace had managed to pull Daniel into a discussion of sorts, luckily I can't remember what it was about. So he was out of the way. That left you. And much to Luzys dismay, you had rolled yourself up and gone to sleep on exactly the spot that she had deemed the ONLY worthy place in the house for her yoga practice. So Luzy made Scott pick you up and somehow thought it an awesome idea to kind of throw you into my bed. Amazingly enough, you didn't wake up but rolled over and slept on."

While the tale had lasted, Belle had tried to sneak the blanket up to hide again. Unfortunately, he was done before she succeeded.

"You are enjoying this way too much." She shot him a glance and he was, indeed rather amused. "Why did no one stop them?"

He shrugged. "I might have. But after you guys were done singing it looked like it was safe to leave you alone for a while. We had already agreed that you'd all sleep here, so basically everyone was taken care of. I went for a shower, and since everything was silent downstairs, I thought I might as well go to bed. Ten minutes later Luzy and Scott delivered their package. Luzy said something of this being your turn, since you are one behind in waking up in a bed that is not yours. Then she seated herself cross legged on the end of my bed and told me everything I had missed. Very vividly, mind you. Scott finally dragged her off, insisting he'd still to learn some yoga. I have no idea where they've ended up, but I kind of didn't have the heart to wake you up again and re-settle you for a second time. So I let you sleep. End of story."

She grumbled silently. "Touching. Remind me to kill them both."

He laughed and pulled her closer. "You really have to work on those rage issues, you know."

For a moment she thought about pushing him away, but in the end it was way too comfortable. She curled herself up and left Alex' observation uncommented.

"We really can't be spending too much time with you guys or else Luzy and I will both end up as alcoholics with maximum half a memory of our time here at Hawaii. You are the pest, let me tell you that." The last part was only a murmur anymore, and then she was back to sleep.


	18. Chapter 18

When Luzy woke up and opened her eyes, she looked straight into the sun that was shining in through the terrace. She cursed, rolled over and hid her head on Scotts shoulder. Much better. Then she had to giggle cause she imagined what it would look like if she'd tried that while standing next to him. They had a rather considerable difference in height. Scott was about ten centimeter smaller than her, but that didn't bother her much. Also, what he might lack in height, he made up most handsomely in width. That thought made her laugh again.

"Very much amused by own thoughts, hm? Morning." He said.

She nodded. "Yeah. I'm just not so sure you'd share the amusement."

His head went up. "I really hope that you are not making fun of me in your pretty little head right now. I wouldn't like that. Not one bit."

Luzy was rather grateful that her head was still buried. For one thing, it ideally did hide the fact that she was blushing again, and for another, it might muffle her laugh.

Scott however didn't seem to agree with the hiding. He started to tickle her and a moment later they were all over the place, wrestling, laughing and generally tearing the place down. Scott might have been smaller than her, but he certainly made up for this not only in width but also in strength. When she tried to get away from him, she knocked over the last standing chair and then rolled against something rather solid.

"While I understand that tastes do differ and you might object against the furniture in this house, could you at least try to keep it intact?"

Looking up, Lucy saw that she had rolled straight into Alex. Now he was standing over her, looking rather displeased.

"Morning Alex…" she mumbled.

Scott didn't seem to think that Alex' appearance did set an end to their fight, and so he seized the opportunity, wrapped Luzy up nicely into one human package, and then triumphantly said: "Got ya!"

Alex only shook his head, stepped over them and headed for the kitchen and the salvation that was coffee. Over his shoulder he said: "Just for the record, I have a rather clear recollection of what this place looked like last night. At least half of the chaos around here is new. So now we all take our best guess as to who may get everything back into order."

Scott looked at Luzy and rolled his eyes. "I hate him. I hate him so much."

Luzy ruffled his hair. "Hating is not an option at the moment."

Scott was confused. "Why?"

"Because he's got the coffee."

He hung his head. "Damn."

In the end, cleaning up wasn't that much of a big deal. After Grace and Daniel also resurfaced, everyone settled outside for a rather massive after-party brunch and then they set to work around the house. After that, Scott persuaded Luzy to go and try her hand at surfing again. He asked Belle to come to, but she just grinned, knowing it was more of an act of courtesy than a real interest in anyone else joining them, and declined.

Luzy and Scott left rather happily.

Belle shook her head. "I can't help myself, it's a bit like having to kids."

"Tell me about it," Alex retorted. "I work with that guy on a daily basis and I knew what he was like before, but I'm not sure I can say that Luzy brings out the best in him…"

He never saw the pillow coming that hit him full in the face.

"I'll not have anything negative said against Luzy, mister. You hear me?"

He rolled his eyes but she could see that he was rather amused. He put the pillow away.

"So. Will you tell me what's wrong?" He sat down next to her.

The change of subject took her by surprise. She shrugged.

"I don't know if I should. And I certainly have no desire to have you go all ballistic again."

He frowned. "So this is about the murder again? How much do you girls know about that?"

She leaned back, closing her eyes for a moment. Then she looked at him.

"Not much more than anyone else, really. Except for the fact that we know who the guys were who sneaked around the crime scene. I still haven't gotten around finding out what they thought they were doing there. All I know is that one of them got hurt, and the other one is even easier to send over the edge than you are."

He smiled apologetically, showing that the criticism had hit home. Then he went back to the actual topic. "So… you do know those guys? And what do you mean, one got hurt? How?"

"Those rumors from yesterday… that someone was attacked? That was one of the guys. And knowing them… it's complicated. Yes and no."

Alex threw up his hands. "Look, if you don't want to tell me, fine. But don't go around being all vague. Either you know them or you don't, right?"

Belle hugged her knees to her chest, resting her chin on them. "No. It's not that black and white, and as I said, it's complicated and it doesn't make much sense. I'll tell you, okay? But only if you promise that you'll not go running of and tell the police or something." She turned her head, looking at him. "Don't be so horrified. I know this all sounds crazy, but somehow the guys are involved in this, but … not on the side of the bad guys, okay? Yeah right, now I do sound proper crazy. Anyway. Promise."

She could see that he was rather doubtful but in the end, curiosity got the better of him.

"Okay. I promise that for the moment, I'll do nothing. That's as far as I'll go."

She could take that.

"As long as your moment doesn't only last till tonight or something… Okay. I know who those guys are cause they are… sort of colleagues of you. Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, might ring a bell with you. The guys from Supernatural. That's how we knew who they are. We don't know them personally. We saw them for the first time the day of the murder, hanging around the crime scene. Then twice more, including that night the police saw Luzy and me. We had been following the guys cause it vexed us what the hell they were doing there. We overheard them talking about the murder, looking for something and then discussing that they'd need to see the body to kind of … validate their theory or something. Then we stayed away, until we heard about the second attack. Someone said the victim was some kind of celebrity so… naturally we suspected. I got confirmation last night when we were at the bar. Jensen was there too, and well. I asked him. His reaction was answer enough. It was Jared who was attacked."

She paused, rubbing her eyes.

"The thing is… I don't know. Maybe Jared wouldn't have been attacked had Luzy and I gone to the police and told them about the guys. I don't know what happened and how. Jensen isn't very pleased when he sees either Luzy or me, he very pointedly told me to stay away from them. I don't know if they went after that guy and got caught up in something or… "

Belle broke off and looked at Alex again.

"We don't know anything. All I can say for sure is that for some reason, they are after the guy who did that. Why that's the case, or what makes them think they'd get a better grip on that than the police eludes me."

Alex didn't say anything for a long while.

"Supernatural. Isn't that the show with the two crazy brothers chasing demons and stuff? And now the real life pair has gone off, determined to find a killer? That sounds pretty much delusional to me, I'm sorry. I mean, seriously? What do they think? That they actually ARE those guys? All they'll manage is to get themselves killed."

Belle shrugged.

"I don't know Alex. All I can say that they looked disturbingly comfortable around the crime scene, that their discussion was rather matter of fact and that they want everyone else to mind their own business. In a weird way, they gave up the impression that they knew what they were doing. And yes, I know how crazy that sounds."

He wasn't convinced. Not one bit.

"I'll not even begin to comment on the crazy factor. There's only one thing I agree with. Stay away from them. And Luzy, too. If the two of them want to play the heroes and get themselves into all kinds of trouble, so be it, but there's no need for anyone else to get hurt."

Belle stretched her legs. "Well, it's not like I got much of a choice, do I? It's very unlikely that Jensen suddenly comes over and pours out his heart to us. So I'll stay where I am and other people will take care of the matter."

She said that rather lightly, but Alex was still suspicious. He made a mental note to call Scott as soon as possible and keep an eye on the girls for the next days. You never knew what they were up to, he had learned that much already.


	19. Chapter 19

It was already late when the girls finally made it back to their hostel. Deciding that it was about time for an evening in, they settled on their beds, zapping through TV.

"Wait a moment, what's that breaking news line saying?" Belle said when they came across the local TV station KGMB.

Luzy zapped back, and both of them read the line running through beneath the movie.

"_Breaking news. Another murder in Honolulu. Police fears serial killer. Victim said to be a tourist."_

The girls stared at the screen with the news not yet really registering. They waited for the news program and listened to the little information there was. A young reporter was standing in front of the Aston Waikiki beach tower. Behind her were police officers busily going in and out the hotel, in front of it a crowd of spectators was visible.

"According to the HPD, another murder victim has been found by the hotel staff this afternoon. The statement released by the police says that the victim is male and not a local. So far, his nationality has not been announced. No official statement has yet been made regarding the cause of death, but if the rumors around the crime scene can be believed, it is another case of a hanging, with circumstances similarly inexplicable to the last case. Further details have not yet been released. From Honolulu, Becky Takana."

"I really really don't like that." Belle finally said. Luzy shook her head in agreement. "No. Me neither." They didn't get much of a chance to discuss anything further. Lucys phone rang, and a moment later Belles mobile received a message.

"Yes? Oh. Hi Scott. What? … Yes, as a matter of fact, we do. What? … Seriously? … No! Of course we won't go out and do something stupid. The hell? … Yes, it's very nice of you to be concerned, but we are not crazy, and none of us has any desire to be the next victim. What? … How do you even know about that?" She listened for a while. "No. Look. We know we can't do anything. What do you think, that we were halfway out the door to go and find the killer ourselves? Really… did I leave such a bad impression? … well that's good. Yes, you too. Good night."

She hung up, shaking her head, then looked at Belle. The other girl raised her hands and shrugged.

"Don't ask me. I don't know what they are thinking, I just got a message that, in a very commanding tone told me to stay put. Wait, I'll quote: 'Don't you even think about going anywhere or doing anything about this.' Yes daddy…" She put the mobile aside. "I wonder how long it will take him to send another text, telling me that we HAVE to go to the police, telling them about Jensen and Jared."

She hadn't yet finished the sentence when her phone buzzed again. She read the message and then hung her head. "Thought so."

Luzy turned round on her bed, facing her friend. "How do they even know about them? Scott didn't really answer my question on that."

Belle leaned back. "I told Alex." Seeing the expression on Luzys face, she shrugged. "I don't know, he asked and was… kinda concerned. So I thought, before he's going all wild with his ideas as to what we know and such, I might as well tell him. I made him promise not to go running off to the police, but for how long he'll stick to that, I don't know. He made sure to make his promise a little less binding than I would have liked."

Luzy contemplated that for a moment. "Oh. I see. That explains the rather lengthy talk on the phone Scott had. When he was done, he was in a rather foul mood for quite some time and kept on hinting at the fact that I like to think of myself as wonderwoman and invincible. I couldn't make much of it in the afternoon but now... yeah, it kind of makes sense."

Belle couldn't help but laugh.

"Wow. Am I the only one who feels a little weird now, with a Hollywood protection squad? I mean, it's rather nice and maybe a bit flattering that they are that concerned, but still. I guess Alex must have called Scott after I told him. I didn't even realize that he did. What did they agree on, to set out and take care of us? Do we have bodyguards now? Cute as that may be in a general way, it raises the question what an impression we give off. It's not like I yearn to be involved in a case of murder."

Luzy agreed. There were most definitely better things to spend your holidays with than a murder investigation. Especially if it was the real deal, the kind that people got hurt in. All this was a lot more entertaining and less confusing on TV or in a book.

"Still" she said, "I wonder how Jared is. And what stupid thing Jensen is up to next. I still don't understand what got into them to make that into their personal mission."

Belle had no answer for that.

"I'd like to hope that with Jared being attacked, they'd come to their senses and let it be but somehow… I don't believe they will.

The girls puzzled over how all those things went together for the better part of the night, but when they finally went to sleep, they weren't any further along to an answer than they had been before.

The next day, at least the question of whether or not Jared was alright was answered. Belle had successfully persuaded Luzy that it was about time for their first island shopping trip and so they were making their way through the Ala Moana shopping center, when they spotted the two guys sitting outside one of the many cafes, discussing agitatedly.

Belle nudged Luzy in the side and pointed over. "That's rather impressive. They both look ready to kill. Well I guess that at least means that Jared is okay again."

Jared and Jensen were indeed rather close to getting at each other's throat. It was obvious that they had a disagreement that seemed impossible to settle.

"Someone should get them separated, that really doesn't look too good. Luzy?" Belle looked at her friend, who was staring over to where the argument happened, too, but she wasn't looking at the guys but at something on the table.

"Belle? Call me crazy, but doesn't that book there look pretty much exactly like the one they are carrying around in the series? I mean… the demon bible or whatever you wanna call it? John Winchesters journal?"

On the table, next to Jensen, was indeed a notebook. It was a dark brown leather binder, full to bursting with papers not only filed but also stashed into it. Sticky notes were peeking out at every possible angle. It was an unsettlingly familiar sight for someone familiar with the TV series the two guys acted in.

Right now, Jensen was more or less ripping it open, flipping through it till he found what he was looking for and then shoving it under Jared's nose, all the while talking. Jared looked at Jensen, glanced over the page, then looked rather defeated and leaned back in his chair, interlacing his arms behind his head, staring at the ceiling. He seemed a bit calmer now, though.

"Unless they chose a Honolulu shopping mall to rehearse for the next season of Supernatural, everything has just gotten a lot weirder than it already was" Belle remarked silently.

"I seriously wish I'd never seen this show. For one thing, we'd very likely gone to the police and told them that we've seen the guys. I mean. What is it that keeps us from going? Some weird impression of the guys knowing their stuff that's been left behind by watching too many episodes of Supernatural? And now that bloody journal, that looks like a movie prop. Let's just go and forget about this, okay?"

Luzy didn't like any of it either.

"Maybe Alex is right. Maybe we should go after all. Even if it might make us look crazy."

But somehow, they both couldn't fancy the idea. Instead, they decided to act like nothing had happened and bannished all the weird stuff from their minds. They had come to do some shopping, and shop they did. Hours later and several bags full of stuff richer, they collapsed into a coffee shop for lunch, when Luzys phone announced an incoming message.

"Wow, popular with the guys, are we?" Belle teased.

Luzy stuck out her tongue to Belle, then checked. When she was done reading, she pushed the phone over the table towards Belle and laughed. "That man…"

Belle took it up and read_. SOS. This is an emergency. Wonderwoman required to safe very nice man from death by boredom tomorrow night. Can't say no because saving lives is your calling as a superhero. PS: Dresscode unfortunately not costume party, would very much have liked to see you in your wonderdress. Details will follow. Go buy a nice dress. Thank you. Scott. _

Belle was rather amused, too. "That is a… very straightforward way to ask someone out. Well then wonderwoman. A dress."

Luzy shook her head. "No. No no no. As funny as that is, I'll go nowhere. You know my luck. In the end I'll find myself on some high end party with all the snobs you can find on this island. We have plans for tomorrow."

Belle raised an eyebrow. "Oh, we do?"

Luzy looked rather determined. "We will have, next time I speak to Scott."

Belle leaned back with a mischievous expression on her face. "Oh yes, of course we will. And while we have fun, poor little Scott will have to hang around a bunch of snobs, sulking and cursing his job. He'll be bored out of his wits and ask himself, why, oh just why his beloved wonderwoman wouldn't come to safe him." She obviously rather enjoyed the scene in her head.

Luzy snorted. "I hate you. I hate you so much. Stop giving me a bad conscious!"

Belle grinned. "I do what I want. Plus, you simply can't let poor Scott down. And with him around, snob parties might even entertaining. If all else fails, you can still crash it. I'm already eagerly awaiting your report. And now let's go find you a dress."

Luzy protested. "I didn't even say… no, WAIT. Hmpf." She got up and hurried after her friend, who was already halfway out the door. "You're such a terrorist…"

Belle was beaming by now. "I know. You can thank me later."


	20. Chapter 20

"Tell me again, how did I end up also going to this event that we still have no idea about?" Belle asked while she was trying to arrange her hair into something that at least partly resembled something different from beach hair.

Luzy grinned. "Oh, it must have something to do with Scott, who called, just to say that we should get a dress for you, too, since Alex would surely be bored as well."

Belle gave Luzy a venomous look. "Yeah. Or it might have to do with you telling Scott that you'd not go if I didn't go, and him nagging at me till I was afraid my ears would start bleeding."

Luzy still looked rather happy. "Maybe. Whatever it was, I'm pretty certain Alex and the fact that he definitely is rather handsome in a suit has nothing to do with it whatsoever."

Belle gave her another death stare and then went back to fixing her hair.

"I'd still feel better if I had any idea of where it is that we are going. It sounded rather formal. Not sure I like that."

Luzy nodded. "Tell me about it. We might want to tone down our drinking a bit, or else the guys will regret sooner rather than later that they asked us to come."

Belle pinned up the last curl, turned round and grinned. "I'm pretty certain we'll actually want to up our drinking instead of toning it down. Point is, we shouldn't. But we can keep it in mind as a last resort of sorts."

Luzy nodded contemplatively. "I like that."

The party turned out to be rather formal indeed. Scott had conveniently forgotten to mention that it was less of a party and more of an official reception, held by the governor at Washington Place. While the place wasn't the residence anymore but a museum, it was still used for official purposes.

Luzy and Belle weren't too sure how much they liked the way to formal appeal of that, but there wasn't much they could do. And then again, how often did you get on the guest list of a governor?

Also, the place was pretty spectacular, with a hall set out with small tables where people could stand and have drinks, the dinner tables out on the lawn, and waiters in fancy uniforms sweeping in and out to serve drinks and appetizers. At least they wouldn't have to stand around in a sticky room, full with people they neither knew nor cared about. And if dinner was as good as the appetizers promised, well then showing up might already have payed out.

But before dinner came the hand shaking. Scott and Alex were pretty busy, being moved around in the hall from one official looking person to the next, and all the girls could do was go along and smile and exchange pleasantries. Belle didn't mind that much but Luzy looked ready to burst. Belle knew her friend hated such events more than anything and was silently chuckling to herself, wondering how Scott was supposed to make up for this.

When Alex was once again held up for a lengthy discussion about the advantages of living on Hawaii, Belle looked around, scanning the other guests, especially taking note of all the dresses the women wore. That would make for a good deal of fun making with Luzy, later at the dinner table. She was just taking in the sight of a particularly daring dress of pink satin, worn by a lady who was about two sizes too big for what she was wearing, when she discovered Jared and Jensen, standing in a corner talking to a young woman. She stared at them for a moment, and was just about to turn away again when Jensen looked up and saw her. He said something to Jared, who also turned. None of them looked pleased. All she could do was shrug, then she turned back to Alex, muttering under her breath "Bloody coincidences."

As if that wasn't enough, a rather impressive older woman just swept over, with Luzy and Scott on her tail.

"Ah, Alex, there you are… come, I want you to meet someone. Such a coincidence that we have four very successful actors here tonight. I shall introduce you, I'm certain you guys will like them. And the ladies, too, of course." She winked at Belle and Luzy.

There was obviously no denying that lady, for Alex shrugged, took Belles arm and followed. Luzy managed to give Belle a "Does she mean whom I think she means" look and when the other one nodded, dropped her head.

"Oh lordy…"

On their way across the room, Alex explained that the woman was a rich local by the name of Michelle Kamano, who had made it her mission to support every kind of filming activities on the islands. She knew everyone, she always had an idea or a solution and people from the film industry relied heavily on her when they came to Hawaii for a new project. Her physical presence and booming voice teamed up with a rather generous and funny character, which made it difficult to deny her anything. Which would explain why the four of them were now meekly following her lead, Belle thought.

"Jared, Jensen! No no no, don't you go anywhere, I want you to meet someone. Alex, Scott, meet Jared and Jensen. You might very well know them already, they have this rather spectacular show with all those demons and spirits and such. I always found that utterly fascinating, and I keep on telling them they should shoot an episode or two on Hawaii, we have spirits a plenty." She let her booming laugh lose. Belle could see why people liked her, but at the moment she'd much rather strangle her.

Instead she heard herself say "That might turn out a tad difficult if we remember that Jensens character has a rather serious problem with flying. Also, how would they get all the equipment on the island in a believable fashion? You can't very well go on a plane with a bag full of weapons, can you."

"Oh, I see I see, the young lady is rather familiar with Supernatural. Well, only the better. But you are of course right. That would ask for some elaborate thinking. Now, why don't you all acquaint yourself with each other while I go and find us a waiter to bring drinks. Don't go anywhere, I'll be back in a moment." And with that she swept off and let the four of them standing around in awkward silence.

Jared and Jensen looked everything but happy and the girls couldn't fail to notice how Alex and Scott had tensed when Michelle had introduced the other two.

Jared broke the silence first. "Hi."

Now doesn't that go well, Belle though. Where's the alcohol when you need it?

Alex and Scott managed a greeting of their own, never letting the other two guys out of there sight. Jensen so far failed to contribute anything to the conversation. Belle was just thinking about how to possibly safe the situation, when Luzy burst into a fit of laughter next to her.

"What the…? Luzy?"

Her friend was bending over, barely holding herself together. She didn't get any audible word out for quite a while, and all she managed to pant when she finally was standing straight again was "Jared… Scott…"

Belle turned form Luzy to Scott and Jared and then she lost it, too. The tension of the moment released itself into nearly hysterical laughter, and all she could do was to keep the volume down. But the sight of the two of them next to each other was too much to bear. Jared and Scott had managed to choose nearly the exact same suit and shirt to wear, dark grey jacket and pants, which went with a white shirt. Both were rather broad through the shoulder and wore their suits well. However, Jared towered about two heads over Scott, who was about 30 cm smaller. It made for a rather spectacular sight, and out of the corner of her eye, Belle saw that once it registered, Alex had to grin, too.

"Great. Now that we've all amused ourselves, how about we split up before Michelle returns… yeah never mind." Jensen's well intentioned, if not very friendly articulated attempt to save the night went amiss the moment a beaming Michelle returned with a waiter who held a tablet full of drinks.

Luzy and Belle were still struggling to hold themselves together. Finally, the fact what it was that had driven them over the edge had finally also registered with Scott. It didn't make him any happier. If Michelle sensed the tension between the four people she had brought together, she chose to ignore it and dragged everyone into a conversation about Hawaii and all its advantages for movie making. She even got round to get Jensen take part in the discussion, a feat that Belle marveled at to no small amount. The girls were already losing all hope of ever escaping from this altogether uncomfortable situation, when the governor himself came to their rescue. Making a lengthy excuse, he did not only drag Michelle off, but also took Alex and Scott with him.

Luzy and Belle stayed behind and by the looks they exchanged, Alex and Scott didn't approve of that. They couldn't do anything against it, though.

When the girls turned to say something to Jensen and Jared, however, they only saw the backs of the guys, who were about to vanish into the garden.

"Wait a moment is that… Jensen? Are you nuts?" Belle couldn't help herself but raise her voice. People turned and looked at her.

"Sorry…excuse me." She pushed through them, after the guys. All Luzy could do was follow.

"What now?"

"Didn't you see?" Belle asked, over her shoulder, still going after the guys. "He's got a gun. I don't believe this."

A moment later they faced the two guys again, but all Belle did was stare at Jensen.

"Are you completely, utterly and totally insane?" She lowered her voice. "Bringing a gun in here? Are you nuts? How did you even get it past the security? And do I even want to know?"

Jared looked as horrified as Luzy and Belle.

Jensen cursed. "Why don't you jump on a table and yell it across the room? Shut up!" While he said that, he rearranged his jacket to make sure the weapon was hidden again.

"Well I can't say I like it Jensen, but she's got it right. What where you thinking?" Jared obviously hadn't known about the gun and he didn't look too pleased with it.

"Oh don't make such a fuss, you know that it's not real bullets."

Luzy looked from one of them to the other.

"Is that supposed to be funny or something? What else would it be? I don't suppose you bring a toy gun here, just to entertain the crowd in case the night gets a bit boring. As I see it, there's two options. Lose the gun or go and get lost yourself." She turned to Belle. "We should have gone to the police. I don't care what you say, I'm going tomorrow."

Belle nodded. Then the turned and left. Or tried to leave. Which wasn't so easy with a guy of Jared's size clinging to your arm, pulling you back. He made them turn around again and sighed.

"Oh no. You will shut up Jared, and let them do whatever they think they have to, you hear me?" Jensen talked across his friend who had just set out to say something.

Jared shook his head. "We can't have the police tailing us Jensen, you know that." He turned back to Luzy and Belle.

"What Jared said is the truth. There are no real bullets in the gun."

They both looked at him, waiting. When he realized that his puppy eyed look wouldn't work to keep them from asking more questions he sighed.

Luzy finally asked. "So. If not 'real' bullets, what then?"

"Rock salt."


	21. Chapter 21

"Oh, very funny Jared, really." Belle wasn't up for any kind of jokes. She shook her head and turned around again, to finally leave.

"You asked." It sounded rather defiant.

Luzy examined Jared's expression and then turned to Jensen.

"You can't possibly be serious. What do you expect? That someone invited a demon along?"

Jensen was still his charming self. He nodded over to Belle and said "They let her in…"

Luzy couldn't help but grin.

"Nah, you mixed something up there. It's not her. I'm the demon."

That was met with an awkward and way too tensed silence by the two guys. Luzy's grin vanished. "I'm joking, okay? Not a demon. What is the matter with you?"

Belle had still not left and now turned back to Luzy.

"They're nuts. That's the matter with them. Completely insane. Probably fame and too many Comic Cons have gotten to their little brains."

Jared flinched a little.

"Hell, I wish that was true. Anyway. You asked, I answered. Now we all can go our separate ways, right?"

The girls nodded. For the moment, they really had enough of those two. Probably not only for the moment. But suddenly, Jensen wasn't all that happy to see them leave. He stepped in their way.

"Not so fast. Now before the two of you can go, and believe me, I can't await the moment of your departure, you'll promise that you won't breath a word of all this to anyone. Are we clear?"

Belle couldn't help but laugh.

"Oh that's pathetic. Seriously. What do you intend to do if we don't stick to your instructions Mr. Ackles? Shoot us? With your pretty little rocksalt bullets? Or hang us with invisible rope on a non-existing tree? You're insane."

Jensen hissed "Keep your voice down!" and was about to say a lot more, when he was interrupted.

"Is there a problem?" Scott's voice sounded behind them. "What? Madwoman, are you picking a fight again? Don't do that, please. Don't. This is a public reception, rather formal, no one wants people yelling at each other. You hear me?"

He looked back and forth between Jensen and Belle, who were still staring at each other. Jared and Luzy were rather at a loss, and both of them were pretty sure that Scott's appearance didn't help the situation. Scott turned to them.

"What's up there? What's with the staring duel?"

Jared simply shrugged. Luzy grabbed Scott's arm. "Nothing. How about we go and get another drink?"

He was about to protest, but something in her look told him that he'd better keep his mouth shut. He waited until they were out of earshot, then stopped and asked again.

"So. Tell me. What was that?"

Luzy shook her head. "Not so important. Drink. Now."

But he wouldn't budge. "No. It obviously is important. These are the two clowns who also tried their detective skills, right? I want to know what's going on. What are they fighting about?"

Luzy gave out a desperate sigh. "They just don't like each other. Put them together anywhere and they'll pick a fight. Scott look, there's nothing I can tell you, okay?"

She could see that he didn't believe her.

"Then why do you look so worried? Something's wrong. What are you not telling me?"

He looked at her imploringly.

"There's nothing I can tell you. Nothing that would make any sense or would not make me sound like an utterly crazy person." While she tried to appease Scott, Luzy tried to get a view of Belle, Jensen and Jared but they were gone. Great, she thought, as if we needed more trouble.

Scott was just about to set out for another round of questions, when the guests all were called to dinner. Luzy welcomed that more than she could say, and this time, it was less for the food and more for the simple fact that between all the other guests, it wasn't very likely that Scott would ask questions about anything surrounding the murder or Jared and Jensen. She took his arm and moved into the direction of their table. Scott glared at her.

"Really? That's your strategy? We're not done here, just so that you know."

She couldn't help but smile.

"Noted. Can we go and try to have dinner in peace now?"

He sighed, rolled his eyes and looked at the ceiling, mouthing a silent "Why?" Then he gave up his resistance for the moment and followed.

While Luzy and Scott went off, Jared tried to pacify Jensen and Belle.

"Guys, give it a rest. You are already attracting attention."

Belle looked at him. "Oh no, we wouldn't want that, right? That would make your sneaking around so much more difficult." Her voice was pure venom.

Jared leaned against the wall next to him, holding her gaze. "Let it go. I promise, you'll be happier if you do."

That didn't help much.

"Oh wow. Is that the good cop, bad cop method? You simply wrap your threats into some nice words? I think I prefer Jensen's way, that's at least honest."

Jensen didn't seem to care at all what she was thinking.

"Just cut the bullshit. You have no idea what is going on, and believe me, you don't want to know. Hell, even I don't want to, but I do. All we are asking is that you keep out of this, you and your friend and the Hollywood squad who's tailing you as well. It's for the better for all of you, and that's not a threat but the truth. And now get lost."

She looked at both of them in turn.

"You are serious. I don't believe it. You really think you can solve that, because you have some sort of superior knowledge and a gun loaded with… rocksalt?" She still couldn't say the word without feeling like she was doing a dumb impression of a scene she'd seen on tv. "Well good luck then. Try not to get yourself half killed again. Idiots that you seem to be, it still would be a waste."

For a moment, Jared looked truly scared, but the expression disappeared in an instant and made place for a look of determination. "We try to, believe me." Then the two of them made their way to wherever they had been headed when Belle had stopped them. She looked after them until they had vanished between the other guests and then went to find the others. She had just spied Luzy and Scott when the announcement came that dinner was to be served. A moment later, Alex showed up next to her.

"There you are. Everything okay?"

She nodded absentmindedly.

"I see. Let me guess. No questions."

That at least got through to her.

"What?"

He stopped, turned her towards him and looked at her. "I asked whether everything is okay, because you looked rather distracted. I guess I got my answer right here."

She shook her head.

"No. No, everything's fine, I was just thinking about something. Sorry."

Alex took a deep breath. "Why do I feel like we had this conversation before? One could think all you want is to get rid of me." He said that with a smile, but there was also a hint of a question. Belle looked at him, eyes wide open.

"What? No, no I don't. Why would I? I mean. No really, it's fine."

That made him grin and he pulled her closer, hugging her tight for a moment and silently said "Well, that's good to know". When he let go again, he held out his arm. "Shall we?"

Dinner turned out to be so fantastic that it took their minds of everything else for the next two hours. They enjoyed several dishes of the most delicious Hawaiian food, accompanied by a good amount of wine and surprisingly pleasant table talks with the people surrounding them. After dessert, even Luzy admitted that she'd not have been able to stomach another bite.

"Okay, I have to admit, as much as I hated the formal reception part, the food totally made up for that. You shall be forgiven" she said into Scott's direction.

He let out his breath audibly. "Lucky me, huh?"

Belle grinned, looking from him to Luzy and back again. "Totally lucky you".

That made him look a little sheepish, but then he grinned too, said "I know" and pulled Luzy over and kissed her. Then he seemed to remember where he was and let go of her again. "Uhm. Sorry. But…that was kind of due."

Luzy just grinned. "No complaints. I liked that."

Belle could read her friends face, and whispered "Another". The girls burst out into one of their laughing fits, leaving the guys to shake their heads. They didn't seem to mind too much, though. Scott, now way more reassured than before, put his arm around Luzy and both looked rather happy.

Belle couldn't help but be amused by them. She leaned back in her chair and murmured "And thus I got the hostel all to myself. Charming." Alex chuckled next to her. She turned, looking at him questioningly. "What?"

"Oh nothing. Just. The pure and altruistic happiness you display at this…" he nodded over to Luzy and Scott, "no self-interest visible whatsoever. That's really endearing."

She poked him in the side. "Shut up. I'm happy for her, they kinda deserve each other. But… why not be happy for me, too, if it brings advantages?" She giggled. "Oh lord, I'm tipsy again already. And there we were, discussing to tone down the drinking before we came here."

He nodded. "Point taken, and yes, wine obviously gets to you easier than rum. Impressive." He looked around. "I think they start calling it a night. Considering that Scott and I have to be out early again tomorrow morning, we should probably do the same."

That got Belle giggling again.

"I really don't think that going home now will do anything to the amount of sleep Scott will be getting tonight."


	22. Chapter 22

Leaving turned out to be easier said than done, with about as many people wanting to say goodbye to the guys as they had said hello to earlier. So once again the girls made their rounds with either Scott or Alex until they finally managed to escape, luckily before Michelle had spotted them again.

Outside, Belle couldn't help but have a lot of fun with the sight of Luzy and Scott, who stood together rather closely, making fun of some of the guests. The shoes they had bought for Luzy added a good eight to ten centimeter to their height difference. But still, somehow they managed to look about just right together.

She watched them for a bit longer, but then tugged on Scott's sleeve. "Hey. Mister… I'd suggest we go now, before everyone pouring out of there once again feels the need to say goodbye or express their appreciation for your show. Hey, I'm talking to you…both of you, actually."

Scott grunted. "Yeah, yeah, I heard you. And you're probably right. So. If you will excuse us." He grinned broadly, took Luzy's hand and then literally marched off with her. Luzy just shot Belle a glance over her shoulder, shrugged and grinned rather happily.

Belle shook her head. "Way too cute, if even a little pathetic."

Alex agreed. "Appropriate description. Well then, let's get you home sound and safe, shall we?"

Belle nodded. "That would be awesomely chivalrous of you" she teased.

Since all spots right in front of Washington Place had already been taken when they had arrived, Alex had parked his car a bit further off. They were nearly at the car when they heard something. Belle turned around, trying to make out from where she had heard the noise.

"What's was that?"

Alex shook his head, and stopped. "I don't know. Wait…"

The sound was still there, coming from some place just round the corner.

"You stay here, I'll go have a look."

Belle looked at him in disbelief. "Don't be ridiculous. We'll both go."

Alex sighed. "There is a killer somewhere around on this island, and as far as I remember, you said you had no intention of meeting him. Stay put."

She held on to his arm. "And what makes you think you'd be better off meeting him alone? Your Superseal gene that you picked up during shooting? Also, it's rather unlikely that we run straight into our maniac killer, don't you think? And now let's go and have a look. That somehow doesn't sound too healthy."

She went round him, ignoring his protests and entered the small side street where the sounds seemed to come from. A second later, she stopped dead.

"Oh my god… Jared!"

What she saw as horrifying as it was disturbing.

Down the street, Jared was lying on the ground. Behind him kneelt a man who was twisting the ends of a rope that he had slung around his victims neck. Something about the attacker looked wrong, but Belle couldn't seem to work out what it was. He didn't look… solid enough. But that couldn't be. Her mind was racing like mad, trying to make sense of all this, when Jared let out a sound that very much sounded like a last attempt on resistance. His face had already turned slightly blue for lack of oxygen.

"Stop that… STOP IT!" Belle yelled. A second later, Alex rushed passed her, trying to help Jared, but the moment he came only halfway close, he was swept of his feet and crashed into the wall. Belle stared at the heap on the ground that was Alex and back to the… _thing_… next to Jared. It flickered. No, that couldn't be. She was imagining that. Every muscle in her body was tensed as she stood rooted to her spot, her head processing a million questions at once. What was that thing? What had just happened to Alex? And where was Jensen? Why wasn't he around? They had always been together. Where was he? The man next to Jared flickered again, twisting the ends of the rope once more. The gurgling noise coming from Jared was too much to take.

"Oh god, that can't be real, this is not happening… Jensen? JENSEN!"

Yelling for Jared's partner was the only thing she could think of before, against all reason, also trying to make it closer to Jared. She couldn't just simply stand there, she had to…

"Get down!" Someone yelled behind her. She dropped to the floor without hesitation and at the same moment heard a gunshot. When she looked up again, Jared lay sprawled on the floor, his attacker and the rope gone. Jensen was kneeling next to him, trying to prop him up and get him to breathe again.

Belle just stared at them, waiting for something to happen.

"Please please please, move. Do something… breathe for heaven's sake…" she whispered under her breath. Then she heard Alex let out a groan as he tried to get up. She got to her feed and went over to him, squatting down next to him.

"Easy there." She helped him up into a sitting position, anxiously trying to find out whether he was hurt. He was bleeding from a small cut above his eye, and from the way he flinched and tried to breathe as flatly as possibly, she deduced that he probably didn't get away with only some bruises.

"Take it slow… small inventory. Legs, arms, everything still where it belongs?" She tried to keep her voice light, but panic was just a heartbeat away.

Alex didn't respond but tried to sort himself. He really didn't look good.

Belle fought down the desire to sit down, rock herself back and forth and cry and switched into autopilot, banning every kind of emotional reaction into the far back of her mind.

"I'll be back in a second. If you move, be careful, god knows what injuries you might have." She lightly brushed his cheek with her hand and then made her way over to Jared and Jensen.

To her relief, she saw that Jared had his eyes open and was more or less breathing. He was still chocking and clutching his throat, but at least he was alive.

Jensen held on to his friend, his expression gloomy. Then he nodded over to Alex. "He alright?"

Belle nodded. "I think so. Or he will be again, in a few days." She had so many questions, she didn't even know where to start. But then she heard the commotion down the street and realized that certainly someone must have heard the shot, even if the traffic was rather loud that night.

Jensen cursed. "Damn it… Belle, I need to go. If they find out Jared has been attack again, they'll tail him and we'll have the police on our heels all the time. We'll never manage to catch that bastard with them around…"

She shook her head. She would have laughed if the situation hadn't been so grave. "Rock salt...". Then she looked around. "You'll never make it out of here before someone arrives. I'm rather surprised they aren't here already…"

Jensen nodded. "I know. But if you help me move him over there…" he motioned into the direction of a door she had failed to notice so far, "we can hide in there until you are all gone."

"That's ridiculous… that will be the first spot they'll be looking."

He shrugged. "Not if you tell them that he ran the other way."

The first people arrived only seconds after she was back next to Alex. She hardly managed to whisper "Simply nod to everything I say, please… ", when the first questions rained down on her. People had heard the gun shot of course, but she learned that, with all the noise from the traffic around, it had taken them some time to find out where it came from. Thank god for that, she thought.

By now, Alex looked about the same color as the wall behind him and he was visibly in pain. He kept on coughing flatly, and Belle hoped and prayed that the blood he spat out came from some minor injury in his mouth or from the cut on his lip.

All she could do was to stay right next to him and wait for the ambulance. She'd told him to be quiet since every time he tried to say something, his coughing got worse. The fact that he obeyed told her more about his condition than she cared to know.

Then the police arrived. Belle refused to leave Alex and answered the questions on the spot, hoping that the man next to her was still able to at least take in parts of it in case they insisted on asking him too.

"I told you a moment ago already, we heard some noise from here, and went to look what it was. Next thing I know is, someone is attacking Alex. I really don't know what happened, I was so confused and everything was over so fast. Alex went down and the guy ran away. I don't know… really." I don't know became her default answer. When they asked what the guy had looked like. When they asked why he had only attacked Alex. What he had been doing when they came around the corner that made him attack them in the first place. Then, finally, came the question she had expected to come sooner or later.

"Did this man try to… well, did he try to strangle Mr. O'Loughlin?"

She shook her head. "No. No he just…he attacked him. Look at him. Isn't that enough?" While she answered, she violently fought down the memory of Jared lying on the ground, choking, and that…thing… next to him. She shuddered. That at least seemed to convince the officer that his job with her was done, at least for the moment.

During their conversation the paramedics had arrived and where checking on Alex. Their faces somehow didn't look promising.

By the time the questioning was over, they had transferred Alex on a stretcher and rushed him off to the ambulance. Belle simply tagged along. When one of the men wanted to protest she just stared at him stubbornly. "I'll not go anywhere but into that car with him, so don't even try."

That was either very convincing or there was simply no time to argue. They let her go along.


	23. Chapter 23

The ride in the ambulance was one of the things Belle was sure she'd never forget in her entire life. The Queen's Medical Center was really only some minutes away, but even that was enough for things to turn ugly. Alex' condition deteriorated on fast forward. His breathing was way too fast and came out in spasms rather than real breathes. His face was as white as the sheets on the stretcher. He was sweating and obviously in pain despite the medical treatment. His pulse seemed to speed up by the second. The paramedics were around him, adjusting medication, monitoring him and preparing the hospital for the condition of their incoming patient, but each and every of their words and movements was tensed. Tensed as in afraid to lose their patient before they even made it to the hospital.

Belle pushed herself in the farthest outside corner of the ambulance, trying to be as little of an obstacle as possible. The only thought she kept repeating in her head like a mantra was "Don't die on me, don't die on me, don't die on me". It seemed to speed up with Alex' pulse and it simply wouldn't stop.

Not even when Alex was long gone into the ER and she was finding herself in front of it. The words kept pulsing through her mind. _Don't die on me, don't die on me, don't die …_ How long she'd been sitting there until she actually realized that they had left the ambulance she couldn't say. Looking up, the clock on the wall said it was nearly two in the morning. She read the time but the numbers didn't register. She'd lost every sense of time, space or reality the very moment she'd first set foot into the side street.

She could feel panic and nausea sneaking up on her again and jumped up from her chair. If she gave in to all of this now, she'd be a sobbing mess for the rest of the night. She wouldn't have that. Not with Alex in the ER, Jared and Jensen somewhere out there with that crazy … thing, and Luzy and Scott oblivious to either of those things.

Luzy and Scott. She had to call them.

Yes. That was good. That was something to do. She looked around for her bag and found it under the chair. She went outside the hospital and dialed Luzy.

It seemed to take forever until her friend picked up.

"Hmmm… What?"

"You've got to come here. Queen's Medical Center. Right now. Alex is hurt. He's in the ER right now. I don't know how bad. There's stuff I need to tell you. I'm waiting in front of the ER."

"Belle? What…"

"Just hurry. Please."

Her friend had hung up. Luzy looked at her phone and tried to get her thoughts straight and then got up. Scott reached for her and tried to pull her back into his arms.

"What was that?" he asked sleepily. "Did madwoman need to make sure you're still alive? Can we go back to sleep now? Hey… where… where are you going?" He raised his head and squinted, trying to see what Luzy was up to.

"That was Belle. She sounded terrible. Something happened… Alex is in the hospital, she said something about surgery and…"

Scott interrupted her. Her words had gotten him awake in no time.

"WHAT? I swear to god, that woman… what did she do now? Fraternizing with those idiot friends of yours who are after the killer? How bad? What happened?" He was out of his bed an instant after Luzy had said the part about Alex being in hospital. He put on his pants while he ranted, but then stopped when he heard the door close.

"Luzy? God damn it. LUZY!"

Grabbing a shirt from a close by chair, he went after her.

"Wait."

She was already at the door, slipping on her shoes.

"What for? For you to make more snide remarks towards Belle? Did it cross your mind that she might be hurt, too? Or worried about Alex? Or scared, or in shock or all of the things just mentioned? Wait… I'll answer that one for myself. No. It didn't."

He hung his head. "I only…"

She cut him short.

"I don't care what you 'only" wanted, Scott. I give you one good advice. Keep your temper under control and don't, I repeat, don't ever say any of those things again. And we might get along."

Scott nodded. He realized that he might have crossed a line, but a little stubborn voice in his head kept insisting on the fact that only when someone was around Belle, bad things seemed to happen. He kept that thought to himself, though.

"Before we go… how about I offer you a jeans and a shirt, which would spare you to show up at the hospital in your dress?"

Luzy nodded grudgingly and kicked her shoes off again.

It took them another ten minutes to get going. The time they needed to reach the hospital passed in silence between them. Luzy couldn't help but think about how fast things had turned from awesome to nightmare.

They had been laughing and joking the whole way home. She had kicked her shoes of, which had made Scott all happy cause now, as he put it, she was "way closer in his reach." It had taken them forever to make it to his place because of all the nonsense they'd been doing (the occasional stop for a passionate kiss might have had a play in it as well). Finally there, they hadn't made it far behind his door. Moving to the bedroom came only quite some time later. She couldn't help but smile at the memory. They definitely had chemistry.

Glancing sideway towards Scott however, her anger flared again. Despite the fact that she was head over heels into this guy, he could be a self-righteous bastard. The things he'd said earlier were completely unjustified, no matter what he said. Whatever had happened around the island lately had hardly anything to do with either her or her friend. Blaming Belle for whatever had happened to Alex now was ridiculous. And stupid. And the worst part was that, in case he'd ever let Belle hear any of this, she'd be idiotic enough to believe him.

When they reached the hospital, she didn't bother to wait for Scott. She got out of the car and made her way straight towards the information for instructions as to where to go. Scott caught up with her before they reached Belle and she only shot him a warning glance.

"I got it, okay? I'll shut up. Now could you please talk to me again? Please?"

She sighed. "I'm not freezing you out. I'm just angry. Which makes me shut up before I say things I might regret afterwards."

"Yes. Okay. I get it. Alright? Think before you speak. I'll memorize that. There she is" he finished.

Belle was sitting in front of the ER, holding a cup of coffee. Luzy settled down next to her and squeezed her shoulder.

"Are you alright?"

One look into the face of her friend was enough to tell that Belle had totally closed down.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Alex isn't. I don't know what's wrong. All I know is that he has inner bleeding, that his pulse went havoc and that he was unconscious when we reached the hospital. They put him straight into the ER. That's the extent of my knowledge."

Scott couldn't help it. "Very funny."

It wasn't Belle who looked at him, but Luzy. He didn't like what he saw. He bit his lip and swore to himself to somehow keep his temper under control, at least as long as Luzy was around.

She turned back to the other girl, who hadn't as much as flinched at Scott's remark.

"What happened?"

Belle told them. She started with the moment they'd heard the noise and left nothing out. She told them how Alex had crashed into the wall, how whatever strangled Jared had flickered and vanished after Jensen shot it. How she had helped the guys to hide and lied to the police. How Alex had gotten bad and worse every minute they were stuck in that alley and how the paramedics hadn't seemed to be able to help him. None of the things she said came out with even the hint of an emotion. She just blankly reported facts. When she'd finished her report, she emptied her coffee cup and then gingerly put it down on the floor next to her, like there was nothing more important in the world.

"That settles it. You are crazy. Completely and utterly nuts! It _flickered?_ That Jensen guy shot it with a gun _loaded with rocksalt_? You lied to the police? I don't even have to ask you whether you are out of your mind! You are bat shit crazy!" Scott had completely lost it, the resolve to restrain himself forgotten. He didn't even bother to keep his voice down.

"Scott!" Only that one word from Luzy, but her tone made him stop dead in his steps and he seemed to shrink a little.

"You can't seriously believe that… "

Luzy didn't look at him but was still keeping an eye on Belle. "If she says that's what happened, that's what happened."

He shook his head. "Luzy. Please. She's your friend, okay, I get that, but… honestly? Even you must admit that…"

She cut him short again.

"I have nothing to admit Scott. And you might want to shut up now."

"Let him." Belle put in flatly. "I wouldn't believe myself either, if I was him. Let's face it. No one would." She looked at Luzy. "No, don't say it. I got the benefit of the doubt with you 'cause we're close and read each-others minds and all that stuff. But still. It's surreal. And the longer I sit here, the less I believe it myself."

Scott had nodded all along with Belle's little speech, but at least he managed to quit that fast enough so that Luzy missed it when she looked back at him. The expression on her face told him that he'd not get off that easily, though. There was more trouble to come his way later for sure. He sighed inwardly then settled down next to the girls.

For a long while, none of them said anything. Then Belle looked up at Scott.

"I don't even care if I'm nuts or not. All I want at the moment is someone to come out of there…" she pointed towards the door that closed the ER off, "and tell me that Alex is going to be okay."

That much even Scott could agree on.


	24. Chapter 24

Salvation took it's time to come, though.

It wasn't before past four in the morning that the doors to the ER opened and a doctor appeared. He looked at what had to seem like a rather odd assortment of people in front of him, and then asked: "You would belong to Mr. O'Loughlin, I assume?" Before Scott could say anything, Luzy nodded in Belle's direction and said "She does. We're friends, though. His family is in Australia, so where are the closest to relatives that you are likely to have around here at the moment."

Scott raised an eyebrow but kept his mouth shut.

The doctor looked at Belle. "And you would be?"

"Somerset. Belle Somerset. How is he?" _Don't give me bad news, tell me he is okay, just say that he's okay_ she kept repeating in her head.

"If you'd follow me…" He was about to turn, but Belle didn't move.

"You might as well tell me here, Dr. …?"

"I'm sorry. It's Dr. Lawson." He turned back to her, explaining about patient confidentiality and such. Belle didn't care.

"Whatever you tell me I'll tell them anyway, so you might as well tell us right away and spare me the clumsy attempt to repeat what you said. Please?"

He sighed and sat down on the last remaining empty chair. He looked tired. No wonder, Luzy thought, after nearly three hours of surgery.

"Mr. O'Loughlin is alive. That is, to be honest, more than I had expected when we went into this surgery." He rubbed his eyes in exhaustion then went on. "We nearly lost him twice. I so far fail to understand what exactly happened to him, but whatever it was, it caused major trauma to his whole body, but especially to the upper abdomen. Several of his rips are broken, among them some on the lower left side of his rib cage. One of them… it was twisted at an insane angle and thus it ruptured the spleen. He lost a lot of blood, all of it flowing into the abdominal cavity. We had to remove the spleen and set the rips right again so that they can heal. Given his frail condition at the moment, that was no small feat."

Here Dr. Lawson made a long pause.

"I will not lie to you Mrs. Somerset. I cannot guarantee that he will make it through the next 24 hours. The blood loss was severe, and despite our best efforts, he is still not stable. That is, I'm afraid, all that I can tell you at the moment."

Belle nodded. "Thank you."

The doctor inclined his head and got up.

"Can we see him?" Scott asked through gritted teeth.

Dr. Lawson nodded. "Yes, but only one of you for tonight, and also not longer than 15 minutes. I'll have a nurse call you when Mr. O'Loughlin has been settled into the ICU. And all of you should get some rest, too. Good night." With that he turned and made his way down the corridor.

"When they call, you go Scott." Belle said.

He turned around and looked at her, suspiciously.

"What? It's only fair, don't you think? He's your friend, you know him best and the longest."

He nodded. "Sounds sensible." The look Luzy gave him made him add "Thanks."

Belle simply shrugged. "I'll get another coffee. Anyone?"

Luzy declined. So did Scott. When her friend had left, Luzy turned towards the man next to her and glared at him.

"If I didn't like you so much, I'd have your head off. What the hell do you think you're doing here?"

Scott snorted. "I? I behave like a normal human being. Why don't you ask your precious friend what she thinks she's doing? First that bullshit about… I don't know. What was it that she tried to hint at? Demons? Funny little devils? And now this, this… Termintator behavior? I mean, seriously? Does that all leave her totally unaffected? '_I'll get another coffee?_' Really?"

Luzy was ready to burst, but she restraint herself. She couldn't really blame him.

"She's closing in, that is all. That doesn't mean that she's not affected by all that's happening, she just doesn't let it get to her."

Scott wasn't in the mood for a lecture.

"Oh great. Did you guys, by any means, watch a bit too much of our show? Does she idolize McGarrett or something? 'Cause that's sure as hell one of the stupid stunts he would pull. And just for the record: he's a FICTIONAL character."

None of them had noticed that Belle had returned, coffee cup in hand.

"If it helps anybody, especially Alex, that I'm sitting in a corner, rocking back and forth and generally being an emotional wrack, I'll gladly sit down and begin. Does it, Scot?"

Scott looked confused. "No, but…"

"Well then I think I'll continue my, what did you call it? Terminator behaviour, and try to hold myself together." She settled down and drowned half of her coffee in one swallow. "If that puts you off, I think I can live with that."

To that, Scott had nothing to add. He looked briefly to Luzy, but already before he did he knew that he couldn't expect any kind of support from that direction. As if he needed more trouble. His friend was more dead than alive, the mad girl talked about flickering apparitions and demon cowboys and now he'd gotten himself into a fight with Luzy. He really, really liked her, but if all of their arguments were going to go like that, he didn't see them go very far together. He settled back in his chair, resigned to not talk again until the nurse took him along to see Alex.

Half an hour later, when he stood next to the Alex' bed, he wished that it hadn't been him who had gone in. Alex looked terrible. He was paler than any living person had any business being and Scott found himself constantly checking the monitor for the pulsing line that assured him that his friend was still alive. He didn't trust the beeping sound alone. It was way too unsteady.

"You look like shit, man. You never know when the party is over, huh?" He tried to joke, but his voice betrayed the false humor.

"Look, whatever happened back there, I'd rather hear it from you than from that mad mad person out there. So… uhm… just make sure you come back around soon, will you?" After that, worlds failed him and he simply settled down, trying to make sense of the last days and just generally keeping his friend company, hoping that somehow, that got through to him.

The let him stay for more than 15 minutes, but after about half an hour, the nurse quietly came back and asked him to leave. She reassured him that they'd take care of Alex to the best of their abilities and that they'd be allowed another visit the next day.

When he came out of the ICU, Luzy was waiting for him. One look at Scott was enough for her to tell that it was bad, and she was grateful that it hadn't been Belle who had gone in. Seeing Alex in there might have succeeded in breaking the shell her friend had just built around her. Luzy waited for Scott to come over and then simply silently hugged him. Their argument aside, she knew that he was probably less than alright after what he'd just seen.

They stood there for quite some time, until Scott finally let go of Luzy again. He took a deep breath and looked around. "Where's ma… Belle?"

"She's gone home. I put her into a cab and made sure the driver really got her back, no matter what she wants him to do on the way. The fifty dollar note should have taken care of that." Scotts unbelieving face just made her shrug. "Contrary to what you belief, I do know what she's capable of and it's more than likely that she'll go and try to find Jared and Jensen. For the moment, I hope that she's exhausted enough to give up for today and go to bed once she's home."

Scott simply leaned against the next wall and slid down to the floor, burying his head in his hands. After a moment he run his hands through his hair and his face resurfaced. He looked up at Luzy.

"Why are you still here?"

She sat down next to him. "Because you are obviously not as good as Bell when it comes to 'not letting things get to you'. No, I simply didn't want to leave like that. Arguing." She leaned her head back against the wall, following the pattern on the ceiling with her eyes. She took is hand and held it tight. Then she turned her head towards him.

"Look, I know this is hard for you. And I know Belle isn't, and probably won't ever be your favorite person in the world. But you didn't even look at her. You didn't have a second to spare to see whether she was hurt. To ask whether she was alright. She's been there with Alex, Scott, and whatever happened, no matter how… worldly or supernatural it was, it's what got him into this state. Would you have liked to see that? I don't."

He let that sink in for a while. Then he shook his head.

"No. Of course not. I'd rather it hadn't happened at all. But… and please, don't go mad at me again now, but do you really belief the things she said? A flickering, not so solid thing? Rock salt? Really?"

Luzy shrugged. "I don't know Scott. We'll probably have to wait for what Alex has to say. Or Jared and Jensen. But there's two things to keep in mind."

Scott shot her a questioning look. "And that would be?"

"For once, you've seen him. I've only heard what the doctor said, but whatever hurt Alex has had an insane impact. Apart from a truck, that, as you'd probably agree, would not have gone unnoticed, I don't know what could have caused such damage in a moment's time. And second, whatever you think about Belle… she cares about Alex. And she has absolutely no reason whatsoever to lie about what happened back there."

From the way he frowned, she could see that he was really turning the things she said over in his head. Then he let out an exasperated sound.

"But what then? Demons and spirits, out there to get us? Is that the bottom line?" He looked angry, angry at the seemingly unsolvable mystery, at the circumstances, at his own helplessness.

Luzy couldn't give him any answers.

"I don't know. But… and don't kill me for quoting yet another fictional character here, … but when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."

Scott gave her a faint, tired smile.

"Alright Sherlock. But… just let me think of demons and spirits as impossible for a bit longer, will you?"

Luzy squeezed his hand in agreement. She didn't like all this any better than he did. Finally, she got up and pulled him after her.

"Can you do me a favor?" When he leaned his head to the side in a manner of asking, she went on "If I ask you to come with me now, do you think you could manage to not be totally terrible towards Belle?"

He thought about that for a while. Then he nodded. He really didn't feel like going back home alone right now, but he also could see that Luzy wouldn't want to let her friend alone. And maybe for the better for all of them. God alone knew what the girl would be up to next. He pushed that thought away. Thinking along those lines wouldn't exactly make it easier to keep his mouth shut later. Come to think of it…

"Do you really think that's such a great idea? I mean… Belle might not be all too thrilled to see me, either."

"Honestly? I really don't think she cares at the moment. But you don't have to come if you don't want to, I'd understand." She didn't look too happy with that, though. That won him over.

"Oh well, you must know. Let's go then." After a moment's pause, he added: "The things I do for you" but his tone told her that he was as loath to leave her now as she was to see him go home alone.


	25. Chapter 25

They took a detour via Scott's apartment to get some stuff for him and then made their way towards the girl's Bed and Breakfast. Luzy shortly marveled at the fact that it felt like they had checked in there ages ago. To comprehend the things that had been going down in the last 24 hours would take at least the same amount of time, she thought. Or maybe they'd never quite register.

The drive along Kalanianaole Highway was beautiful as always. It led along the coastline straight into Hahaione Valley, where the hostel the girls had their accommodation in was located.

"Couldn't you guys just have booked a room in town or something? Not that it's not beautiful out here but… it's a bit … remote, don't you think?"

Luzy had to grin. "If you pay, I'm very willing to move. But no, seriously. For once, it's cheaper out here than in town. Also, we didn't come here to hang out in Honolulu all the time but to get around the island and actually see lots of stuff and get a break. And considering getting a break, it doesn't get much better than out here. There's all kinds of parks and gardens and whatnot… plus there's the bay. It's incredible. So we're actually pretty well of out here."

He nodded. "Yeah. Unless a crazy demon… spirit… whatever thingie is out to get you."

He said it jokingly enough but she still could hear the concern in his voice.

"I don't think it's out to get us. If anyone, it wants Jared."

Scott considered that for a moment. "Yeah. True. Probably. Which means we stay the hell away from that guy."

Luzy didn't feel like that really was an option, but the determination in Scott's voice made her hold that thought back. He'd realize sooner or later that Jared and Jensen where probably not gone for good. At least she had a feeling they weren't.

When they turned onto the driveway to the house, there was already a car parked in front of it. That was new. As far as their hosts had told them, there wouldn't be other people in until in two weeks. Luzy had a suspicion as to whose car that might be, but she decided she might as well wait and see instead of risking another, maybe unnecessary, tantrum from Scott.

"What the…" she heard Scott say when he opened the door. He looked down at his feet, and when she followed his lead, she saw what he meant. So they _were_ here.

"Salt. Nothing to worry."

Scott moaned. "Salt? Really? Have you gone mad as well, now?" He looked at her in disbelief as she made sure that the salt was evenly spread behind the closed door again, before she turned around.

"No. I haven't. Please, just… I know this is all completely bonkers, but. Just trust me, okay? I'd guess you'll get an explanation in a moment… not that that would make things any less crazy but…"

"Now you're the one who's rambling. Hey there." came Belle's voice from behind her. "But you're right, I guess some things will become a little clearer in a bit. Not that I'd have any hopes that that means less crazy but. Yeah…" She looked at Scott as if she wanted to say something else, but then decided against it, and waved them to follow. "The guys are upstairs."

Scott stopped dead. "Wait, wait, wait. The guys? Like in 'the guys that thing is after'? Do you really have that little desire to survive your holidays? Really? Because I'd like to live. I'd like my friends to live. I have no desire, I repeat, no desire whatsoever to ever come close to this thing or people who are involved with it. And neither should you. Because, correct me if I'm wrong, but I really don't think you can rationalize with whatever it is. And... "

Luzy rolled her eyes and nodded towards Belle, indicating that she'd take care of that. Belle went upstairs. Luzy took a deep breath and interrupted Scott's rambling. "Scott…Scott! Stop it. Please. Can't you just try and listen for a moment? That salt in front of the door? It's meant to keep that thing out, whatever it is. And no, don't laugh now. It's weird, it's surreal, but it seems to be true. And the only people who can probably answer the questions we all have are Jared and Jensen. So can we just agree on a truce for a moment? Because… I don't know about you but I sure as hell could do with a break." She looked at him pleadingly. She hadn't realized how exhausted she was until a moment ago. But right now, with the prospect of more hours of troubled discussions, fear for Alex, seeing Belle in her miserable state, realizing that the only reason for Scotts rants was the fact that they were all that held him together, she wasn't quite sure how to hold on herself.

"Hey… are you alright?"

Obviously the exhaustion showed. Scott was over next to her in an instant, pulling her into his arms and holding her tight. For quite some time, he didn't do or say anything. He just held her. Only quite some time later he silently said "I'm sorry. It's just… "

Luzy wouldn't let him go on. She understood. Instead she kissed him and then looked at him.

"It's alright. I know. But somehow, we'll have to get through this. So let's try not to make more of a mess than necessary, okay?"

He nodded. "Okay. I'll try. Kick me when I lose it again… or better…" He grinned and lightly stroked her cheek with his thumb. "Well. You'll find a way to shut me up."

Luzy nudged him lightly in the shoulder. "Bastard." But it had been exactly what she needed. A hug. The reassurance that someone noticed when she was struggling. That she could let herself go for a moment. Someone who managed to make her smile despite everything being terribly upside down. She hugged him again, burying her head on his shoulder for a moment, freezing out everything else for some seconds. Then she let go.

"Now come on, before they send a rescue mission downstairs."

Once up in the girl's room, they found Jared, Jensen and Belle sitting around in various states of worry and tiredness. Spread over the table and the floor were books and notes, one looking more suspicious than the other. Jared sat on the floor, his back against the bed, leafing through an enormous volume of a book that looked like it was at least a hundred years old.

"There's nothing. As long as we don't know where it comes from and why it has these freakish powers, we can basically do nothing but duck and hide."

Jensen snorted. "Yeah right, like that has ever worked before."

It wasn't exactly the kind of conversation Luzy had hoped for. It wasn't necessarily cut out to gain Scott's trust. But so far, the men next to her remained silent.

Belle sat, curled up, in a chair close to the window, observing Jared and Jensen. Luzy saw that the window sills were also sealed off with salt.

She put some stacks of books away under the table and settled down on the floor, pulling Scott down with her. Then she once again looked around her. Belle still didn't do anything but watch the two guys. Jensen sat on the bed, cleaning his gun and thereby being a picture perfect impression of his TV show character. So was Jared, who was busy looking something up on his laptop by now.

"This is so disturbing." She couldn't help to say.

Jensen looked up. "Yeah, and we haven't even reached the good part…"

Luzy could feel how Scott tensed next to her and squeezed his hand, shaking her head slightly.

"I don't think this is the time for jokes, Jensen. While you are familiar with all this, we are not. And someone got hurt. Someone we care about. So you might want to tone it down a bit." Belle looked at him, and from the tension between Jensen and her, Luzy knew that they had been fighting earlier.

"Yes M'am." Jensen retorted. But somehow, it sounded less mocking than Luzy would have expected.

Scott pulled at some notes, opened the covers of some books and then shook his head.

"What IS all this stuff? And what's with the salt?"

Jensen settled back, taking up the cleaning of his gun again. "Your turn, smart boy."

Jared sighed and closed the lid of his laptop. "Alright. I'll try to wrap all this up as shortly as possible… Luzy, Belle, you probably know more about all this than you realize. Scott… you… I guess you've never really watched our show?" When Scott shook his head, he nodded. "Yeah. I figured."

He sat up in an attempt to make himself more comfortable, put the laptop aside and stretched his legs out. Luzy could see that his throat still showed very visible marks from the two attempts to strangle him, and his voice was rather raspy. Despite that however, he seemed surprisingly fine for someone who'd just survived two near-fatal attacks. Tired, though. Well, they all were. Just as if he was about to prove her point, Jared rubbed his eyes and stifled a yawn.

"Well then. Let's try to get you guys up to date."

Belle got out of her chair. "I've heard half of what you're about to say already. I'll go make coffee, I guess we could all do with some. You go on, I'll be back in a minute." When she had left, before Jared could start his explanation, Jensen looked at Scott.

"How's that friend of yours? I didn't want to ask with her around… " _Now that was nearly considerate_, Luzy thought. _Wonder for how many other surprises we are in tonight…_

Scott swallowed hard then shrugged. "I don't know. He looked… terrible doesn't even begin to describe it. More dead than alive, I guess. What happened back there? And don't feed me some cock and bull story about demons or spirits or… man. I don't know." He obviously gave up. Luzy held on to his hand a bit firmer.

"I'm afraid there's no cock and bull story to be had. Wish there was, man, believe me." Jared said. He sounded genuinely upset, which kept Scott from making any further snide remarks. He just settled back, ready to await whatever story he'd be told in a moment's time. He didn't care anymore. All he wanted was to make sense out of all of this.

"Fact is those things do exist. Demons. Spirits. Basically everything we parade around in our show. Not in the frequency that the script would have you believe but yeah. They are there. Most of them are pretty harmless, but then there are… others. Bottom line is, Jensen and I do not only hunt them down in TV, but every now and then also in real life. There aren't that many hunters out there so… we can't really afford not to."

"Hunters…" Scott's voice was made of pure disbelief.

Jared rubbed his eyes again and nodded. "Yeah. Hunters. As Jensen likes to say, we hunt them down, we find them, we kill them. Simple as that." He gave a humorless laugh. "Don't worry, I pretty much know exactly what you are thinking at the moment. It wasn't much different for us about five years ago. It's not like we were always like that. Until we ended up in that infernal show, we were just…your average actor."

"Well, not that average really. Good looking, at least." Jensen put in.

"Drop the Dean act, Jensen…" Belle said from the door. She handed him a cup of coffee which he took with a nearly grateful look on his face. When the others had served themselves, Jared resumed his story.

"To cut things short, the guy who came up with the show, Eric Kripke, did so for a reason. He is a hunter himself. Doesn't look much like it, but believe me, he's fierce. Originally, he only thought that by putting all those things out there he'd raise awareness. I mean, of course there's all kind of supernatural bullshit going on in TV, but most of it doesn't get the lore behind it right. Eric does. But somehow, while watching us going through the motions and kind of getting familiar with the lingo and all that stuff during season one, he became obsessed with the idea that we'd be cut out to do the job for real, too. It was madness.

He told us all those things and both of us were ready to quit and leave, but then something happened. There was a row of freak accidents in Vancouver and one night, Eric ended up at our place rather badly wounded. The… thing that came after him… well, I still don't know how we survived that but somehow we got off the hook.

After that, there was at least no denying anymore that these things, like demons, spirits and all the monsters scary children's stories and legends contain of, do exist. At least most of them. So we decided to at least listen to what he had to say. And somehow he managed to persuade us to give it a try. So shooting also became some kind of a boot camp, with real life training sessions in between as often as possible. It was surreal, exhausting and crazy. Jensen gave up, I gave up, but in the end those things we had seen that one night back in Vancouver always made us come back. For about a year after Eric deemed us fit enough to manage out there, we went on the road with him. Then he went back to hunting solo. He's certainly better that way. Since then, it's only the two of us."

For quite some time no one said anything. Then Scott spoke up.

"That is about the sickest thing I've heared in my entire life."


	26. Chapter 26

That comment was met with an even longer silence than the one before. It was Scott again who broke the silence.

"So, I'm asking again. What's with the salt?"

This time it was Jensen who answered thus giving his partner a much needed break for his voice.

"It keeps the son of a bitch out. There's different ideas why it helps, from spirits having to count all the grains before they can enter over the purity of salt and its meaning for life, blah blah blah, but fact is it does. We put a protective circle around the whole house and again one around this room just to make double sure."

Scott didn't look convinced, not one bit. "Did you see what that thing did to my friend? And SALT is supposed to keep it away? Really? If only Alex had taken his salt shaker with him, how very stupid of him…"

"Look man, we don't like it any better than you do that your friend got hurt. But I'm afraid we're your best shot at getting rid of that thing. Like it or not." Jensen said. He had taken up a second gun and started to take it apart for cleaning.

"That's all very well, but how about you just go and leave all of us the hell alone? I mean, if that thing really is after Jared, then you are putting people at risk unnecessarily. Did that ever cross your thick head?" Scott would have loved to hit the other guy. It unnerved him how calm Jensen sat on the bed, polishing around on his stupid guns, looking like he didn't have a care in the world.

Jensen was about to say something, but he didn't get a word in before Belle quietly spoke up.

"They are staying."

"Oh really? And how come you get to decide that over all our heads, huh? Did I miss a memo there? Has the terminator taken over command and stupid me failed to notice? Because so far you sure as hell have been pretty quiet there in your corner. But then, of course, I forgot. You made coffee." Scott's anger welled up again. Belle seemed to have that effect on him.

She answered him as quietly as she had before. "Because I don't want anyone else to get hurt. And as you said, this thing is obviously after Jared for some reason. But it's not after Jensen, or me or Luzy or you. It didn't hurt me back there, even though it could have. From what the guys patched together so far, it's kind of selective about its victims. Which makes it fairly safe for us. So that means that Jensen can go after it, but Jared shouldn't. So we've decided that he should stay here, because a, the place is relatively easy to be kept safe, and b, he's not alone, and thus less likely to do something stupid." She gave Jared a faint smile then looked back to Scott. "And if you don't like it, no one forces you to be here."

Scott had shut down the moment she'd said the part about the thing being selective about its victims.

"It's SELECTIVE? Tell that to Alex, will you? Oh but I forgot, he's not in a state to hear you right now, he might never be again, 'cause for all I know he's probably not even making it through today! Selective? REALLY?" He was yelling by now, and he silently wished for Belle to say something stupid so that he could go on and get rid of all this anger and rage inside him.

"It's enough… " Jared had seized Scott by his shoulders and shook him. "Stop that. It's not her fault that he got hurt, okay? If you want to blame anyone, then blame me. It was me who went off even though I knew that thing might be after me still and it was Alex and Belle who pretty much saved my life out there."

Luzy wasn't sure how much more of that she was able to take.

"Can't we just simply stop the blaming all together? It doesn't help. It's exhausting and it doesn't lead us anywhere." She glanced over to Belle, who sat motionless in her chair, hugging her knees to her chest. Luzy felt terrible, seeing her like that, but she just didn't have any words to comfort her. No one could tell whether Alex would be okay. And with that wall her friend had built around her, she knew there was no sense in going over and trying to hug her. She'd just shrug her of.

Belle seemed to feel that she was being watched, and when she saw Luzy looking over, she just gave her a tiny nod. It was enough to tell Luzy that her friend knew what she was thinking. It was in those moments, that she was grateful that they understood each other blindly. While she maybe couldn't do anything at the moment to make Belle feel better, she at least wanted the other girl to know that she would if only she could. Knowing that the message had been received didn't change much, but it helped. At least a little.

Scott was still shaking with anger. He didn't even realize that Luzy had put her hand on his shoulder in a fruitless attempt to calm him down. He got up, looking at no one in particular and simply announced that he had to get out of there, before they all drove him mad.

Luzy murmured "So much for making you shut up…" and looked after him, unsure whether to follow or not. Then Belle was beside her. "Go. I guess he can do with a friend."

Luzy gave her a long, searching look. "And you?"

She knew the answer before it came. "I'll be fine."

Luzy shook her head, half sad, half in anger. "Of course you will. What was I thinking…" Then she followed Sott downstairs.

She found him on the terrace. He had closed the door behind him, which told her that while he might not believe in much of what he'd just heard, he wasn't ready to take chances. She couldn't blame him for not wanting to believe any of this. Her head was still spinning form Jared's tale. It was crazy, it was hard to believe, but what else was there? Unless all this was a very, very bad joke or an extremely vivid and long lasting nightmare, she'd no choice but to believe the guys.

She composed herself as good as she could manage for the moment, and then followed Scott outside, carefully stepping over the salt circle drawn around the door.

"Scott?"

He stood with his back towards her.

"What?" Defiant.

That was a good question. What did she want to tell him? Was there anything to say at all? She didn't know. Life didn't prepare you for a demon attack on the friend of a person you held more than only a little dear. Come to think of it, it didn't prepare you for any of the moments that mattered. She couldn't really imagine what Scott was going through. She knew how upside down she felt, and she didn't have to deal with a close friend's life hanging by a threat on top. Not that she didn't care about Alex, but that wasn't the same. All she could do was to try and give him comfort. So she simply wrapped herself around him from behind.

"Nothing. I just… I just thought that you shouldn't be alone."

That seemed to have been the right thing to say. She felt how some of the tension left his body.

"Shouldn't you be inside, trying to take care of the terminator?" His voice was flat when he said that, but the aggression from earlier had gone.

Luzy let the 'terminator' go uncommented.

"I have a feeling that Jared will take care of that. Maybe he can do a better job than I could at the moment."

She'd seen Jared look at Belle when she herself had went after Scott. Maybe he would indeed be able to get her to come out of her shell again. He got along with Jensen after all, and if someone had reached an even more impressive level of repressed emotions than Belle, it was certainly Jensen. Which might in turn have given Jared some practice in dealing with people like that.

Luzy shifted her attention back to Scott. He was still standing still, like a monument to himself, neither moving nor speaking.

"Scott say something… please. It's enough that Belle is sitting up there, closing all her fears and emotions in. Don't do that to me."

He laughed mirthlessly.

"There's not much to say Luzy. I'm scared. Scared like hell. For Alex, for you, for all of us. I've never, in my entire life felt so helpless. I'm used to go and make things happen. I'm used to taking care of myself and those I love. But right now? I can do nothing. You know what I'd like to do? Take Alex and you and get the hell off this island. But we can't do that, can we? 'Cause that silly little friend of yours, and if I'm not totally mistaken, you too, have it in their heads to go and help. Or at least support the two freaks up there. And Alex…" He broke off. The memory of Alex and what he looked like at the moment, what he was going through, was way too disturbing to go on speaking. He swallowed.

"Well, bottom line is, we're not leaving I guess" he said when he had composed himself again. "And that makes me angry. Because it means I have to sit here and watch things happen that I do not understand. Things that I cannot control. Things that might get more people hurt. And that… that is killing me."

Luzy hugged him tighter. She wanted nothing more than to make him better, to tell him everything would be alright, but she couldn't. Because she felt exactly the same. Every word he had said, had hit home He had put into words the things that she had carried around with her since Belle had called her earlier that night.

"No one's going to die here" she said as determinedly as she managed. "And for the fear thing… I really think we all feel the same. The way you handle all this by raging and ranting… that is the other end of the spectrum of what Belle does. She's as afraid as you or I am, and as concerned. Granted, I also would love to smash her head against the wall because she so stubbornly insists on being okay and having it all worked out. But that's the way she deals with things. Otherwise she'd be falling apart."

Scott turned around and looked at her. "And you? How are you holding up?"

Luzy shrugged. "I don't know. Worrying about others so much that I don't have time to worry myself? Jokes aside… I guess I'm managing. But for me it's a little easier. I wasn't there, like Belle was, when this… when Alex got hurt. And while I like him, he's not that close to me as he is to you. Or as important as he is to Belle. Don't look at me like this, she really cares about that guy. But as I said… that makes it slightly easier for me. Not much less disturbing, though."

Scott smiled faintly. "And thank god that you are above over-analyzing , huh?"

She just shrugged apologetically.

"Nah, that's alright. And thank you. Thanks for coming after me and dealing with my shit, even though I didn't quite show my best behavior in there."

Luzy smiled. "See. That's why I like you. You go mad in no time, but at least you have the decency to be sorry afterwards and remember your manners."

He just grinned and then took her hand and pulled her over to the bench on the edge of the terrace, snuggling her in. Simply being there, not fighting, not having to try to make sense of the world and all the crazy things around them, just being there and being together, did them worlds of good.

Luzy couldn't tell how long they'd been sitting there and she didn't care. She could have stayed there forever. Scott seemed to agree, for he didn't make the slightest attempt on getting them back inside. Only after a long time he moved at all, running his hand along her neck, turning her head towards him. He kissed her, and then smiled, stroking her cheek with his thumb.

"Just for the record… liking will not be enough in the long run."

That, Luzy thought, was by far the best thing she had heard all day.


	27. Chapter 27

"So. What do we know about that… thing?" Belle asked once Luzy had gone after Scott.

Jared looked at her, shaking his head. "Not much, really. Only that it's, surprisingly, not a demon but a spirit. But it's unusually strong and we so far failed to find out why. Also, it seems to choose its victims rather than go after them randomly. But the pattern that lies behind that also eludes us so far."

"Well, then there's a lot to do, hm?" She eyed the stack of books next to her. "What are all these?"

Jared reached out, placing a hand under her chin and turned her head back from the books towards him. "They can wait. You should get some rest instead of more coffee, you know?"

She jerked her head in order to get away from him. "I don't want rest Jared. I want answers. Whatever it is you guys are looking for in all those books, I can help."

The man shook his head. "I doubt that you are of much use at the moment. You have been awake for what, 24 hours by now? You're agitated and you are upset. All in all not the best circumstances to do research, if you'll excuse my bluntness. Go get some sleep, and after that, we'll see where you can help… Belle?"

She had gotten up and simply left him sitting where he was, murmuring "Whatever."

"Looks like you gotta up your game when it comes to women, huh?" Jensen said from behind him.

"Oh shut up." Jared growled. He was still feeling the effects of the two attacks on him and he was dead tired. Jensen could see as much. He got up from the bed, putting one gun away and tucking the other one into the waistband of his trousers.

"You definitely should sleep, you look like shit, man. I'll keep an eye out on the rest of them."

Jared nodded, got up and disappeared into the bathroom.

Jensen waited till the door closed behind Jared, then picked up two books and went downstairs to find Belle. She was in the small sitting room that was also open for the guests of the house. He took one of the chairs and pulled it over next to the one Belle was sitting on, putting the books on the table in front of her. She kept on looking outside, but she acknowledged his presence by saying: "Do me a favor and don't lecture me on how Jared only wants to help me. I know. He's probably a good guy and all that but I can't simply go to sleep. I'd not find rest anyway."

He nodded. He had expected that much. "I wasn't, you know. Lecturing is Jared's part of the job." After a small pause he asked "Nightmares?"

Belle just shrugged. "I guess so. I don't know. I haven't tried sleeping yet, but I dozed off in the cab when I came here. Gave me enough of a taste to know I don't need that again."

He turned the ring on his finger, contemplating. "Well, I hate to break the news, but you'll have to sleep eventually…"

"Yeah. I will. I'm not stupid, you know. But at the moment I'm willing to try my luck and wait until I more or less pass out from exhaustion. Maybe not healthy, but with a little luck, it will keep any kind of dreaming at bay. Worth a try. Everything is better than… yeah. Doesn't matter. Whatever." She fixed the point outside in the garden again that she had been staring at before he had come down.

He had a certain idea what it was that she kept seeing when she closed her eyes. While he had been rather occupied with Jared back in that side street, he couldn't help but notice the unnatural angle at which Alex had been lying close up to that wall, and the pained sound he had made whenever he coughed.

He grabbed one of the books and passed it on to her. "Care to rush your exhaustion by helping me looking through these?"

Belle took it. "What exactly are we looking for?"

Jensen ruffled his hair. "If only I knew. Anything that might tell us how a spirit suddenly comes into powers that are most definitely two or three levels too high for it."

When he saw her confused expression, he sighed.

"Right. Not your average household knowledge. Look. Spirits can be rather powerful. They can hurt you, they can move things, they can even throw you around. No mistake, they can also kill you. But not like this. They are supernatural but they aren't superhuman in their strength. Most of them are a bit above what the average well trained human could do, but that's about it. What makes them dangerous is their anger, their treacherousness, their ability to come at you unnoticed and assault you. But that thing? It's mean. And it's strong like nothing in the spirit spectrum I've ever seen before. Neither has Eric. I've talked to him. So, what we are basically looking for are… clues as to how a spirit could come into the possession of such powers." He paused a moment, thinking. "Damn, Jared is a lot better at explaining that stuff, I'm usually just the hit and run type of guy."

Belle smiled faintly. "Shut up and read. I think I got the idea." She opened the book in front of her then looked up again. "Jensen?"

"Hm?"

"Thanks."

They went through the books in silence, relocating from the rather uncomfortable chairs to the floor, leaning against the wall under the window after a while. Page after page of information on spirits and their abilities went through under Belle's eyes, but nothing hinted only in the slightest at the fact that there was even a possibility that a spirit could come into higher powers.

Jensen kept glancing sideways every now and then, but whenever he looked over, Belle stared into the book in front of her with a frown and a look of determination on her face. Every now and then he saw her rub her eyes or stifle a yawn, but that was about it. At least she had stopped to go and keep on making new coffee.

It was at least another hour until finally, Belle's body was about to call it quits and force her to sleep. After she had only caught herself in the last moment from falling over head first for about the third time, Jensen simply took her arm and pulled her over. When she wanted to protest, he told her to shut up.

"I'll wake you as soon as you start to dream bad stuff, promise. Should be easy to recognize." He could tell she wasn't even registering that anymore and a moment later she was fast asleep against his shoulder.

"That's more like it…" he murmured. He arranged himself into a more comfortable position, and then stared at the ceiling, contemplating the little information they had so far.

He must have nodded off himself and was rather startled when the terrace door opened.

"It's alright, it's only us" he heard Luzy whispher. Relieved, he relaxed. A short look sideways told him that Belle hadn't noticed anything. She was still asleep, so far still breathing evenly, which made him hope that her tactic had worked and she wasn't dreaming at all.

"Where's Jared?" Luzy asked. Jensen indicated upstairs. She nodded, then went in the direction of her room with Scott, too.

Once out of earshot, she stated "Life makes the most interesting couples… I'd actually expected it would be Jared who could talk some sense into her…"

Scott grunted. "I'd have liked that a lot better. That Jensen guy seems a right cowboy type. Don't get me wrong but I really don't think that's doing any good to her…"

Luzy lightly kicked him. "Oh god, don't do that. Please don't go all daddy on us... At least she's asleep and not sitting in some corner alone, sulking. That's something, right?" While she couldn't help but agree a little to what Scott had said, she was way too relieved to see her friend getting some rest to really care.

When they came into the room, they found Jared fast asleep. He had simply curled up in the admittedly rather large arm chair that graced one corner of the room. It still made for a peculiar sight, given his size. Luzy surpressed a giggle.

"Well, we should probably get some rest, too." She remarked. Scott nodded. "Yeah… It's just… It's nearly eight in the morning… I think I'll call the hospital… just to hear whether there's something new on Alex…"

She understood.

"Sure."

While Scott went out again to make his call, she went into the bathroom, straight under the shower. If only the water could wash away all the fears, she thought.

When she came back out, Scott had already gone to bed and was staring at the ceiling.

"Nothing?"

He shook his head. "No. First they didn't want to tell me anything at all but I got lucky and the doctor was around. He spoke to me himself but…yeah. Nothing. He's still unstable, they are still not willing to make any predictions whatsoever. We can go and see him in the afternoon if we want to."

Luzy hadn't really dared to hope for positive news, but still, hearing that Alex was still hanging on for dear life was hard. She rolled over to Scott and put her arm around him.

"He's going to be okay. He has to."

Scott nodded. "He better be or … yeah. He has to." After that, he didn't say anything anymore and just recluded into his own thoughts.

While Luzy fell asleep rather fast, it took some time until exhaustion finally also took its toll on Scott.


	28. Chapter 28

When Jensen woke up, rather sore and stiff, Belle was gone. He stretched and rubbed his eyes, then paused to listen.

Nothing.

The house was still silent with the others either gone as well, or, what was more likely, still asleep. When he looked around, he saw that Belle had left one of the books open, a note posted on the open page that read: "Can you read this? Says something with terrible and strong. Maybe relevant?" She had drawn an arrow that pointed towards a rather untidy scribble on the side of the page. At the bottom of the note, in very tiny writing, it said "Thanks for the babysitting. No dreams." He couldn't help but shake his head and grin a little. Then he pulled the note from the page and examined the scribble on the margin. The writing was familiar to him, it showed up every now and then in several of the books Jared and he had sort of inherited from Eric. It belonged to some long dead hunter who had used the old volumes not only for reference but also as kind of notebooks.

When he'd finally riddled out what the words where meant to mean, he hit his forehead with his flat hand and cursed.

"Of course. That must be it... If I get my hands on that bloody idiot…" He snatched up the book and raced up the stairs.

"Jared? Jared, get up! I got something."

When his partner had managed to sit at least halfway upright in his chair, Jensen shoved the book under his nose, pushing his finger on the side note. Jared, who usually did the larger amount of the research, was way more familiar with the writing. It took him only a moment to make out the words.

_Summoning gone terribly wrong, spirit freakishly strong._

The paragraph next to it introduced an advanced summoning spell. From what Jared could gather, it allowed to summon a spirit and force it into the service of the person who called upon it. That in itself wasn't new, there were all sorts of summoning rites. The one in front of him however was more complex than the ones he had seen so far. Something about it bothered him, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

Jared looked up at Jensen.

"That might help. I don't know, something's wrong with this, but I can't quite say what yet. I'll have to do some more reading. I see what I can find."

Only then he seemed to realize that Jensen was alone.

"Where's Belle?"

Jensen shrugged. "No idea. My best guess would be the hospital."

Jared grunted. "So much for me needing to up my game with women, huh? Seems like you aren't that much better…"

Their discussion had woken Luzy, who couldn't resist but put a word in. "Well, last time I looked Belle was all tame, sleeping like a baby in Jensen's arms."

Her comment startled both guys and left Jared looking as baffled as Jensen looked uncomfortable.

"Woah, woah, now that's not true. I simply kept her occupied until she more or less passed out. That's all."

He obviously wasn't too happy with the part of the savior, especially not when Jared started teasing him about it. When Jared would simply not shut up, Jensen shoved a stack of books in front of hise other man's feet and then marched off to the shower.

Luzy grinned. "Little sensitive, are we?"

Jared nodded. "Yep. Doesn't like to show his soft spots. Acting like a complete idiot comes way more naturally to him. Anyway… before I do anything, I need food. Breakfast, anyone?"

That made Luzy light up.

"I like the way you think." She disentangled herself from Scott, who was still fast asleep and went downstairs to find whatever food their hosts had prepared. Jared checked the doors and window sills, replacing any missing salt and sealing the protective circle again. When he was done, he joined Luzy for breakfast, looking rather unhappy.

"What now?"

He looked around him. "I think we'll have to move. The house in itself is easy to seal off but… with your hosts coming and going all the time… makes it a whole lot more difficult. I be they'll also ask all sorts of awkward questions. The amount of salt is very unlikely to go unnoticed. Plus, while Jensen might be happy that he has me put away in a rather remote place, I'd prefer to be in the city center. I need to use the library. There's no way I'm staying in here all the time. I should be fine in public places, probably not alone, but yeah. I guess that's taken care of. While Belle and Jensen had an impressive fight last night, she sided with him pretty fast when it came to keeping me safely tucked away somewhere or at least always in company. Obviously they do not only share their talent to put away their emotions to some place even they can't find anymore, but also some kind of guardian complex… bless me, really."

Luzy frowned. "Yeah, I sensed they must have been fighting. What about this time?"

Jared shrugged. "Me. Alex. The design of the universe. Basically everything. If I remember correctly, it started with Belle telling Jensen he was an idiot for leaving me alone. Hit a bit of a soft spot there, I might add. Next thing you know they were more or less at each other's throat. I guess they both simply needed to put their anger somewhere. Found the perfect dumping place in each other."

The rest of their breakfast they spent in silence. Once she was feeling hallway full, Luzy settled back, tea cup in hand, looking contemplatively at Jared.

"So. Moving… any place you got in mind? Because you're damn right that we'll not let you guys go off alone. Also, Belle and me aren't that bad at researching stuff, so you might as well put us to good use now that we know what this is all about."

Jared nodded into the direction of the stairs. "What about him?"

"Scott? I don't know, but… I think he'll come along. He might not like you much but I'd bet anything that he cannot let this go either." She had a feeling that Scott would go wherever she went. She liked that feeling, but couldn't help to wish for the circumstances that lead to this conclusion to be different.

"If you say so…guess you must know. For where to go… no idea yet. Ideally a place that not too many people check into. Easy to seal off. Central. Ideally able to hold a lot of people, so that we don't go crazy when we're all around. Yeah…that should be easy to find."

"Alex' house."

Scott settled down on the chair next to Luzy.

"What?"

"Alex' house. It's on Diamond Head. It's about eight to ten miles from here, it's not frequented by other people, it's spacious, you are in the center in relatively short time and I got a key. Also, the next neighbor is a bit off, so. I think it's more or less exactly what you are looking for."

Jared nodded. "It is indeed. I'm just not sure we should…"

Scott interrupted him. "Look. I'm pretty sure Alex would be fine with this. Otherwise I'd not suggest it. I don't like it much either, but it's our best shot, and in the end, it will ideally help to get rid of that… monstrosity that did this to him. So there's really not much to argue about, okay?"

That settled the matter.

Belle hadn't slept long, but two or three hours without any nightmares where better than nothing. She had felt worse and even more tired when she had woken up, but trying to fall asleep again proved futile. It was half past ten already. Jensen was still asleep. His position didn't look very comfortable but she refrained from waking him. He could probably do with whatever sleep he could get. She took up her book again and went on scanning through it. After ten minutes she skipped the main texts and only scanned the scribbles in the margins. Most of them she couldn't read but somehow they held her attention, and then she came across the one she pointed out to Jared. Neither the two words nor the text next to it made much sense to her. It seemed to be some kind of manual for experienced … whatever you called those people who used this kind of book. To her it seemed to be lacking an awful lot of information. She sighed and put the note for Jared in.

Once unoccupied again, she couldn't stop her mind from wandering back to Alex. She tried to get rid of all the pictures, of Alex crashing into the wall, of him on the ground, only half conscious and in pain, of the sound the monitors had made in the ambulance and of Alex' ashen face. But they simply wouldn't go away. Belle sighed.

_Oh well, if you are so insistent, I might as well pay you a visit, Mr. O'Loughlin._

She got up, trying carefully not to wake Jensen. Sneaking up, she got some fresh clothes and after a stint in the bathroom, she got herself a cab and made her way to the hospital.

Since she didn't expect the doctors to admit her to visit Alex, she actually didn't plan on asking. But once face with the automatic swing doors that let through to the patients, all made from glass, she realized that she wouldn't stand a chance and gave up her plan of sneaking in. She got herself a coffee and settled down in front of the ICU. Several nurses and doctors passed her, but none payed her any mind.

Belle was through her third cup of coffee, when someone stopped next to her. She looked up. It was the nurse who had come to let Scott see Alex the night before. That seemed ages ago. Time was a funny thing, she thought.

"You should drink that up if you want to go in there" the nurse told her.

Belle looked confused. Then she realized what the woman had just said and drowned the rest of the coffee. "Done."

"Be quiet, don't touch anything, and if the doctor comes along and asks, it wasn't me" the nurse said when she opened the door to Alex' room and motioned her in. Belle nodded.

"Thank you."

She took a deep breath and then went over to his bed. The sight added nicely to the gallery of grizzly pictures she had in her head. His face looked waxen, his skin a greyish, gruesomely transparent color expect in the places where it was bruised. His breathing was aided by a tub, and what looked like a million other cables and tubes were wired around his body, ending in various machines and infusions. Three monitors kept his vitals under surveillance.

He looked disturbingly small and frail.

It took Belle a while to recover from that first impression. Then she settled down on the chair that stood next to the head of the bed. She looked at him for a long time. She couldn't help but feel the urge to simply sit down on the bed and wrap her arms around Alex, holding on to him so that he'd know there was someone around who desperately wanted him to stay and get better. Instead, she reached out and lightly brushed his hand, settling hers on top of his.

"No more demon chasing, mister… it's obviously not your sport."

She swallowed.

"Look… I'm not good at this. I hate hospitals, they make me sick, and I never know what to say when it comes to expressing things that even only remotely boarder on anything labled 'emotions'."

She had to clear her throat, and then murmured "Yeah right, that's proper cinematic for you… let's go talk to the guy who can't hear you anyway and make a pathetic soppy scene…"

She fell silent for a moment, but the unnerving sound of the beeping monitors in the otherwise oppressive silence urged her on.

"I might suck at this, but there's one thing I know for sure. You can't do this. You'll bloody well have to hang in there and use that thick head of yours to push through this. Because, if you don't … I don't know. Scott's probably not going to take that so well and once he kind of recovers, he'll go ballistic … which would very likely be the end for Jared and Jensen. And then Luzy would have to be mad at him, which wouldn't be good for the two of them, they are so cute together… and I'd have to try and comfort Luzy about that and then everything would be a terrible mess… So you see. Dying on us is not an option…"

She impatiently blinked away some tears. "It really isn't, you hear me? I've no desire what so ever to clean up the mess you'd leave." Especially not since I'd much rather have the chance to get to know you better instead of losing you altogether, she added silently.

Then she told him all that they had found out so far. She repeated faithfully all the things Jared had told them the night before, described the books they had gone through and the little information they had on the spirit.

"It's a mean son of a bitch, but they'll get to it… and then it's going to pay…"

She hadn't known that she was able to feel such a thirst for revenge. She wondered how Jared and Jensen got along with doing this job without going emotionally havoc. Jensen's tactic looked familiar, but Jared? He had to have a really deep believe in the good they did, otherwise she was at a loss to explain how he kept up his spirit.

"If anyone had a right to want revenge it would be you, hm?" she said, looking at Alex again. But the only response she got was the unsteady sounds of his heartbeat.

"I see. The silent treatment."

After that, Belle found herself at a loss as to what to say. So she remained quiet, simply watching Alex, trying to freeze out the beeping around her and simply mentally willing him to get better. Fast.

Her silent vigil went on for quite some time, until the nurse that had earlier on let her in, came back.

"Ideally you'll be gone in latest ten minutes. That would mean you don't run into the doctor, which would spare both of us unnecessary trouble."

Belle nodded. She didn't feel like leaving but she knew that trouble with the doctor was the last thing she should get herself into. That he had told them what was going on with Alex had been rather kind of him after all, considering that none of them were relatives. She briefly wondered how long it would take Alex' family to come down here. Couldn't be long until they arrived.

She lightly kissed him on the forehead, whispering "I'll be back" and then followed the nurse out. The woman must have heard her.

"I can't do much more for you today, but if you care to come back tomorrow, I got the night shift. Starts around eight."

Belle nodded. She'd no idea why the nurse would do that for her, but somehow she felt like it was pressing her luck to ask. She simply thanked her again, and then left the hospital.

Once outside, she switched on her phone. Three missed calls and four messages. All from Luzy.

"Damn." She called back.

"Thank god, Belle! Where the hell are you?" Luzy managed to sound angry and relieved at the same time.

"Sorry… got a bit lost in time." She skipped the 'where' part. Luzy knew anyway.

"Alex, hm? How is he?"

"Alive" was all that she got from Belle in reply.

"I see. By the way, do I wanna know how you got in?" Luzy didn't wait long enough for Belle to make a reply. "No, I don't. However, since you are obviously out of the hospital again, you best come back home." Then she filled her in on the latest developments.

"Wait a moment, Scott suggested that we move into Alex' place? What happened? Sudden moment of enlightenment?"

She could hear Luzy suck in her breath.

"I'm sorry. I know it must be hard for you with the two of us fighting all the time. I'm on my way."


	29. Chapter 29

Belle hadn't slept long, but two or three hours without any nightmares where better than nothing. She had felt worse and even more tired when she had woken up, but trying to fall asleep again proved futile. It was half past ten already. Jensen was still asleep. His position didn't look very comfortable but she refrained from waking him. He could probably do with whatever sleep he could get. She took up her book again and went on scanning through it. After ten minutes she skipped the main texts and only scanned the scribbles in the margins. Most of them she couldn't read but somehow they held her attention, and then she came across the one she pointed out to Jared. Neither the two words nor the text next to it made much sense to her. It seemed to be some kind of manual for experienced … whatever you called those people who used this kind of book. To her it seemed to be lacking an awful lot of information. She sighed and put the note for Jared in.

Once unoccupied again, she couldn't stop her mind from wandering back to Alex. She tried to get rid of all the pictures, of Alex crashing into the wall, of him on the ground, only half conscious and in pain, of the sound the monitors had made in the ambulance and of Alex' ashen face. But they simply wouldn't go away. Belle sighed.

_Oh well, if you are so insistent, I might as well pay you a visit, Mr. O'Loughlin._

She got up, trying carefully not to wake Jensen. Sneaking up, she got some fresh clothes and after a stint in the bathroom, she got herself a cab and made her way to the hospital.

Since she didn't expect the doctors to admit her to visit Alex, she actually didn't plan on asking. But once face with the automatic swing doors that let through to the patients, all made from glass, she realized that she wouldn't stand a chance and gave up her plan of sneaking in. She got herself a coffee and settled down in front of the ICU. Several nurses and doctors passed her, but none payed her any mind.

Belle was through her third cup of coffee, when someone stopped next to her. She looked up. It was the nurse who had come to let Scott see Alex the night before. That seemed ages ago. Time was a funny thing, she thought.

"You should drink that up if you want to go in there" the nurse told her.

Belle looked confused. Then she realized what the woman had just said and drowned the rest of the coffee. "Done."

"Be quiet, don't touch anything, and if the doctor comes along and asks, it wasn't me" the nurse said when she opened the door to Alex' room and motioned her in. Belle nodded.

"Thank you."

She took a deep breath and then went over to his bed. The sight added nicely to the gallery of grizzly pictures she had in her head. His face looked waxen, his skin a greyish, gruesomely transparent color expect in the places where it was bruised. His breathing was aided by a tub, and what looked like a million other cables and tubes were wired around his body, ending in various machines and infusions. Three monitors kept his vitals under surveillance.

He looked disturbingly small and frail.

It took Belle a while to recover from that first impression. Then she settled down on the chair that stood next to the head of the bed. She looked at him for a long time. She couldn't help but feel the urge to simply sit down on the bed and wrap her arms around Alex, holding on to him so that he'd know there was someone around who desperately wanted him to stay and get better. Instead, she reached out and lightly brushed his hand, settling hers on top of his.

"No more demon chasing, mister… it's obviously not your sport."

She swallowed.

"Look… I'm not good at this. I hate hospitals, they make me sick, and I never know what to say when it comes to expressing things that even only remotely boarder on anything labled 'emotions'."

She had to clear her throat, and then murmured "Yeah right, that's proper cinematic for you… let's go talk to the guy who can't hear you anyway and make a pathetic soppy scene…"

She fell silent for a moment, but the unnerving sound of the beeping monitors in the otherwise oppressive silence urged her on.

"I might suck at this, but there's one thing I know for sure. You can't do this. You'll bloody well have to hang in there and use that thick head of yours to push through this. Because, if you don't … I don't know. Scott's probably not going to take that so well and once he kind of recovers, he'll go ballistic … which would very likely be the end for Jared and Jensen. And then Luzy would have to be mad at him, which wouldn't be good for the two of them, they are so cute together… and I'd have to try and comfort Luzy about that and then everything would be a terrible mess… So you see. Dying on us is not an option…"

She impatiently blinked away some tears. "It really isn't, you hear me? I've no desire what so ever to clean up the mess you'd leave." Especially not since I'd much rather have the chance to get to know you better instead of losing you altogether, she added silently.

Then she told him all that they had found out so far. She repeated faithfully all the things Jared had told them the night before, described the books they had gone through and the little information they had on the spirit.

"It's a mean son of a bitch, but they'll get to it… and then it's going to pay…"

She hadn't known that she was able to feel such a thirst for revenge. She wondered how Jared and Jensen got along with doing this job without going emotionally havoc. Jensen's tactic looked familiar, but Jared? He had to have a really deep believe in the good they did, otherwise she was at a loss to explain how he kept up his spirit.

"If anyone had a right to want revenge it would be you, hm?" she said, looking at Alex again. But the only response she got was the unsteady sounds of his heartbeat.

"I see. The silent treatment."

After that, Belle found herself at a loss as to what to say. So she remained quiet, simply watching Alex, trying to freeze out the beeping around her and simply mentally willing him to get better. Fast.

Her silent vigil went on for quite some time, until the nurse that had earlier on let her in, came back.

"Ideally you'll be gone in latest ten minutes. That would mean you don't run into the doctor, which would spare both of us unnecessary trouble."

Belle nodded. She didn't feel like leaving but she knew that trouble with the doctor was the last thing she should get herself into. That he had told them what was going on with Alex had been rather kind of him after all, considering that none of them were relatives. She briefly wondered how long it would take Alex' family to come down here. Couldn't be long until they arrived.

She lightly kissed him on the forehead, whispering "I'll be back" and then followed the nurse out. The woman must have heard her.

"I can't do much more for you today, but if you care to come back tomorrow, I got the night shift. Starts around eight."

Belle nodded. She'd no idea why the nurse would do that for her, but somehow she felt like it was pressing her luck to ask. She simply thanked her again, and then left the hospital.

Once outside, she switched on her phone. Three missed calls and four messages. All from Luzy.

"Damn." She called back.

"Thank god, Belle! Where the hell are you?" Luzy managed to sound angry and relieved at the same time.

"Sorry… got a bit lost in time." She skipped the 'where' part. Luzy knew anyway.

"Alex, hm? How is he?"

"Alive" was all that she got from Belle in reply.

"I see. By the way, do I wanna know how you got in?" Luzy didn't wait long enough for Belle to make a reply. "No, I don't. However, since you are obviously out of the hospital again, you best come back home." Then she filled her in on the latest developments.

"Wait a moment, Scott suggested that we move into Alex' place? What happened? Sudden moment of enlightenment?"

She could hear Luzy suck in her breath.

"I'm sorry. I know it must be hard for you with the two of us fighting all the time. I'm on my way."


	30. Chapter 30

While hanging around with the Five-0 crew had already been a rather surreal experience for Belle and Luzy, moving into Alex' house with Jensen, Jared and Scott took "surreal" to a whole new level. Once there, Jensen put down his stuff then vanished again. Jared meanwhile instructed them on security measures for the house. They sealed every window and every door that lead outside with salt.

When Jensen came back, he provided the others each with a knife.

That got him another suspicious look from Scott.

"What's that now? Another magic trick? Do we slice up the damn thing into spirit carpaccio? Is that the plan?"

Before Jensen, who already looked ready to kill again, could answer, Jared took over.

"These knives are custom made. The blade is pure iron. It repels spirits. You touch them with that, and it keeps them off."

Scott wasn't convinced.

"Really? Iron? What does that tell us? I mean, do they prefer gold? Is iron beneath them or something, so they go bam when you touch them with it? Hm? Tell me, I'm listening."

Jared sighed.

"No. It's a little more complicated than that. Spirits do use electromagnetic energy to manifest. I'll not go into details, you'll just have to trust me on that. Fact is, since that is the case, and since iron is a conductor, you can use it to drain them of their energy. And devoid of energy, a spirit can't do anything. You can't kill them with iron, but you can make them disappear for a while. Which sometimes might be enough to save your life."

"You just made that up, right? Tell me that you just made that up, because otherwise that sounds an awful lot like logic and science, and I don't think that I like that."

Jared understood way too well what Scott meant. It hadn't been any different for Jensen or him when they had begun all that.

"I know. But actually, it is. There is a lore behind all that, there are rules to the game. I'll teach you some of them, which might make it a little easier for you to deal with all this. Bottom line is, keep those knives close, ideally do not go out alone and when around the house, make sure the protective circle is still intact."

Luzy then started to ask Jared all kinds of questions, and he sat down with Scott and her and answered them as best as they could.

Belle had received her knife from Jensen silently, sliding it into her pocket and then settling into a chair with a small stack of books.

"What are these?" she asked Jensen, pointing down at the books in her lap. "Most of them do not make much sense to someone who's new to all this… supernatural business, hm?"

He sat down next to her.

"All kinds of different stuff. The one where you left the note for me is a _grimoire_. That's basically a magic text book with all kinds of instructions on how to summon demons, spirits and such. The others are histories, collections of myths, notebooks from older hunters. By the way, your note was rather helpful, it got us on to something."

She looked up, for the first time really listening.

"Why? What did it say? I couldn't really read it, it was more like… a hunch, really. It _felt_ important, as stupid as that might sound."

"Basically it says something about a summoning gone wrong, and a spirit that developed freakish powers. Jared is working on finding out what exactly that means, and what could have gone wrong. Maybe the same happened to the spirit we have around here."

"What do you mean? That someone… someone actually made that thing appear? Why would you do that?"

Jensen shrugged. "I don't care. All I care about is getting rid of that thing and then get off this island again."

She wasn't sure she did believe him, but she let it go.

"There's also still the question what the victims have in common. There must be something. And why did it attack Jared? I still don't really understand any of this."

Back at the hospital, when she had not been able to come up with anything else that she could tell Alex, she had gone over this in her head again and again. There were still so many questions. The mere fact that they knew that the killer was a spirit didn't help at all.

"I've tried to think about that… I mean, provided I got the idea behind a spirit right when watching your show, they are here because they don't want to or can't move on. Due to unfinished business, basically… right?" When he nodded, she went on. "Unfinished business would mean that … they kind of relive something? … well as much as you can 'relive' anything when you're already dead… okay, I digress. Anyway. But when you say that it might have been summoned… how does that add up? I mean. That basically says that the spirit had no unfinished business of its own? But has now been called on by someone here on the island? Why? To do what? I just don't get it."

Jensen nodded again. "That is exactly the question we'll have to answer. We'll need to find out what the victims had in common, and especially who summoned the son of a bitch. And then we need to take them both down."

Belle laughed dryly. "Nothing easier than that, really."

For the rest of the day, the five of them sat down together, trying to come up with something at least remotely resembling an action plan. Scott wasn't too happy with any of it and finally resolved that he'd much rather stay around the house and the hospital, refuting questions from others, keeping in contact with the crew from on set and regularly checking in on Alex.

Jared was confined to library duty, in which Luzy joined him. That left Jensen and Belle to doing the leg work. Luzy only happily let Belle go with him. Looking at herself and Belle in comparison, her friend was way more similar to Jared when it came to social skills, and thus would be of much more use to Jensen. She could chat up people in no time and make them tell things that they actually hadn't planned on sharing. Luzy herself was much more the organization type of person. Give me a task and I'll break it down neatly and handle it for you, she thought, but do spare me too many people. Library duty with Jared sounded just fine for her.

So it did for Scott. He'd tried very hard to hold himself back through the whole discussion. He knew it wasn't his place to tell Luzy what to do and what not to. However, the library seemed a much safer place than anything else, and if someone had to go with the cowboy hunter, he preferred that person to be Belle. He felt a little bad for thinking along those lines, but he couldn't help it. If there was anything he wouldn't be able to take, then it was Luzy getting hurt on top of all of this. There was only so much you could deal with at one point, and Alex' condition and the overall situation where already stretching him rather thin.

When they had worked all this out, Scott left them to go and visit Alex at the hospital. Jared sat down with Luzy to walk her through all the books they would be consulting, trying to explain to her what exactly it was that they were looking for.

"Basically, there's this summoning spell. It's extremely complex. I'll walk you through it. And then we'll see where I can find any inconsistencies and such. After that I'll probably have to ask you do go through boring and confusing books, trying to find things that might help us. But yeah. On the brighter side, if you ever need a spirit or a demon to aid you afterwards, you'll probably be able to summon one."

Luzy appreciated the try at humor but declined nonetheless.

"I guess I'll have seen enough of spirits, demons or any kind of supernatural being after this, thanks."


	31. Chapter 31

For the next two days, they put their arrangements to work. Jared and Luzy spent hours at the libraries or at home, buried in books, researching online or on the phone with Eric. Jensen and Belle tried to get any information possible on the victims and were basically out of the house 24/7.

Scott transformed into their general information basis, keeping an eye out into all directions. He regularly checked in with all of them, kept up with the plans the TV crew had and especially kept an eye on Alex. By now, the media had started to blow up the whole affair into a rather big thing, and Scott rarely managed to get into the hospital without being held off and asked stupid questions.

While he didn't mind lying to the media, Alex' family was a different matter. His mother and sister had arrived two nights ago, and since then he'd given evasive answers whenever he saw them. He basically kept up the tactic Belle had used when interrogated by the police. Most of the questions he simply met with an "I don't know". He felt bad for lying to them, but he knew he'd feel even worse if he told them the truth. Not that he'd expect them to believe him anyway, but what if they did? If he had the choice, he'd happily forget everything he had learned during the last days. He'd very much like to keep on thinking about spirits and demons as things that were purely imaginative. He didn't need them in his reality. Unfortunately, no one had cared to ask him.

The only good thing was that Alex had stabilized. His condition wasn't totally uncritical yet, but at least he was over the worst. He'd live. He'd tried to tell the others, but of course for once, when there was really something important to say, he'd not been able to get hold of any of them. So sharing the news would have to wait until they met again at the house. For now, he decided that he might at least fill in his colleagues. With that resolution, he set out to leave the hospital.

He didn't get far though. While he was used to the camp of several reporters that he faced when entering or exiting the hospital every day by now, the frenzy that greeted him when he got out this day hit him totally unexpected.

"What the…?"

Microphones and voice recorders were shoved in his face, at least six or seven reporters tried to ask him questions at once and he had a lot to do to keep them from simply crushing him between them.

"Woah, ladies, gentlemen… WHAT is going on?"

They still didn't see the need to get themselve a little more organized. Everyone seemed only to care to get his or her questions out (and answered) first. Scott pushed on to make his way through them, feeling a little like Moses trying to part the sea. And then, finally, one of the questions a young reporter next to him asked got through to him and made him stop dead.

"Now that there's a new victim, do you think that Mr. O'Loughlin is in immediate danger? With the killer not succeeding the first time, do you expect him to come back? Has the hospital taken any additional security measures?"

"A new… what are you talking about?"

The young man looked way to happy for Scott's taste.

"Yeah, police report got in this morning, there has been an attack similar to the one on your colleague. The girl's dead. Think that got anything to do with the two earlier murders? And how does Mr. O'Loughlin tie into that? Mr. Caan? Any comment?"

He kept on pressing on with his questions while Scott tried to get to his car as fast as he could.

Someone else dead. A girl. Not strangled this time, but if what the smart ass said was true, crashed by the same freakish strength that had attacked Alex. That wasn't good. Not good at all. He cursed.

Driving off through the horde of reporters took him nearly fifteen minutes. He called the others on his way home, urging them to come back to the house as fast as possible.

The question the guy had asked popped back into his mind. "Do you think that Mr. O'Loughlin is in immediate danger?" That was a good question. Was he? Would that… thing come back to finish him off? Who was that girl? How did she get herself killed? Why wasn't she strangled? Had she just been a casuality? Had she just gotten in the way, like Jensen and Jared insisted had been the case with Alex? If so, who should have died instead of her? Was that person in danger now?

When he realized what kind of questions he was asking himself, the lines along which his mines got used to working during the last days, he couldn't help but feel sick. If only all this was already over.

Back at the house, he ran into Jensen and Belle who'd just come back. The looks on their faces told him they already knew. So he resigned to asking questions.

"When? And do we know who she was?"

Jensen shook his head. "No idea man, the info just came in over police radio. We'll have to wait out on that and later go and have a look. The others on their way back yet?"

Now it was on Scott to shake his head. "No. I only got Luzy's voicemail, guess they switched off their phones. I could go and get them…"

"I don't think that's necessary" Belle said. "I mean, we basically have nothing to tell them yet, do we? So they might as well go on doing whatever it is they do. We'll need every piece of information they can find, the faster the better…"

Scott had to agree. "Fine. So. What do we do?"

There was no real answer to that. Truth to be told, there simply wasn't much they could do but wait for more information on the new murder to come in.

"Oh…there's something else. Alex… he's stable. Doc said something about him being still a little critical, but he's made it." Scott kept the things that the reporter asked to himself. Panic wouldn't help them, and since Luzy insisted that Belle, who already looked pretty beat for the last two days, really cared about Alex, he didn't want to spook her.

The other two took the news gladly. All of them longed for some good news by now. They hadn't really made any progress yet, neither on the victims nor on Jared's and Luzy's research. Hearing that they at least did not have to fear for Alex' life anymore came as a huge relief.

They spent the next two hours in useless discussions, until Luzy and Jared came back from the library. Both of them looked rather exited, but that didn't last long once they heard the news. Jensen filled them in on anything they'd gotten from the police radio so far. He also told them that he intended to pay the crime scene a visit later that night. The fact that they all agreed that this was necessary and not even Scott voiced any objections went to show how deeply immersed all of them were in that already.

The news about Alex cheered them up a bit again, and then Jared told them why they had been so upbeat when they came in.

"I think we found something back at the library. Luzy got bored with all the spell and legend stuff, so she went and looked up older newspaper articles. We thought that maybe, the media have missed some other murders that where passed off as suicides by hanging. Turns out there weren't. But we might have found the guy who set all of this in motion."

Luzy nodded. "There was this article on a guy who killed himself. They found him in his garage, where he'd set up some kind of occult altar or something. The article is two and a half weeks old, so the time frame fits. It says that he dabbled in what they call dark arts and magic for quite some time, and they suspect that he got himself killed in some freak ritual. It doesn't really tell much about how he died, but there's a picture of the garage." She pulled out the print she'd made. "Some of the things he drew there are legit, rather powerful stuff from what Jared told me… so. He might be our guy."

Jensen nodded approvingly. "We can check that out on our way to the crime scene later. Got an address or something?"

Luzy filled them in with all the information she'd found. She didn't look happy anymore, though. The fact that there had been another victim had made every feeling of accomplishment redundant. Their findings didn't mean anything until they got this thing to stop.

"And what do we do now? I mean… this might be a lead, yeah, but. How do we go from here? We need to speed this up a bit, unless we want more people to get hurt."

Scott wrapped her in from behind.

"We are all doing what we can. Now that might not feel like much, but it's more than anyone else out there is doing, or can do, as a matter of fact. We'll get there, okay?" He said that as much to reassure her as for himself. It was true, though. They were the only ones who really knew what was going on. Which also made them the only ones able to stop that madness. He didn't find much comfort in THAT thought.

They went on making plans for the rest of the night, deciding that Jensen and Belle would go and check out the place of the guy who killed himself, then proceed to the crime scene. Jared and Luzy resigned themselves once again to book study. But now at least they had something to work with, trying to find out what exactly those signs and writings were that the pictures they had gotten from the newspaper report showed.

Scott protested.

"I'll not sit here and do nothing. I'll go with you" he said into Jensen's direction. When Jensen wanted to protest, Belle stopped him.

"It's alright. We'll switch. You guys go, I'll stay here. I'm tired anyway."

That was so unexpected that the guys simply agreed. They didn't stay around long after that, grabbed their stuff and went off.

"I wonder how well that's going to get down…" Jared said.

All the girls could do was to nod.


	32. Chapter 32

Hey there! First of all, a belated but very heartfelt: HAPPY NEW YEAR! to all of you. I've been out of town and out of internet over Christmas and NY's, so that's why there was a little posting delay. I hope you all went through awesome Christmas days and had a spectacular New Years...

So, without further ado, we're back in business with the next chapter!

Lot's of love,

Belle

* * *

><p>"So, cowboy, tell me, how do we do this?"<p>

Jensen shot Scott an irritated look at the mentioning of the nickname the other man had put aside for him, but left it otherwise uncommented.

"Simple. We find out who else is living there, wait for the dark and then go and get a good look at this garage. I'm not sure there's much left, but you never know. Sometimes people are frightened by all the stuff they find when someone dealt with what they call occultism and such …so they might have left it the way it was. Guess we'll find out soon."

They got as close to the house the guy had lived in as they dared. Then they waited. Over the next hour, the only person they saw was an elderly woman entering the house. Once in, she didn't get out again and finally, short after dark, the lights went out.

"Okay, let's go."

Jensen got out of the car and went round to the trunk. He took out a small duffle bag then pulled out a gun from some hidden stash away.

"Take that… I know you don't give much to my advice, but here's some that might safe your ass… shoot first, ask question later."

He closed the trunk as silently as possible.

Scott sighed. "Now that makes me remember exactly why I didn't like you in the first place…" He looked at the gun uncomfortably. He hated guns. He didn't even like them on set, even though he admitted that a cop show without guns wouldn't work quite that well. He had no desire to join his friend in hospital, though, so he tugged the gun away into his waistband. It was a strangely familiar feeling and once again drove home the absurdity of this whole situation.

Realizing that Jensen was already on his way to the garage, he hurried after him. The front of the garage was made up by a gate that swung upwards. It was an old-fashioned manual one, so there was no way to open it silently. These things always creaked and cracked. However, Jensen didn't seem to care about the gate. He went around the building and then Scott heard a small sound of triumph.

"Hey… over here. Side door."

That was neat, Scott thought. Might just keep us from being heard or seen or both and then having to answer awkward questions.

He could already picture in his mind what would happen if they got caught at any of this. Two rather well known actors, sneaking around at crime scenes. Add Alex' injuries and the shows they all stared in up to this and you had yourself a nice little media mess.

Jensen's head came round the garage once more.

"You coming or what?"

That made Scott realize that he had simply stopped dead next to the garage to ponder his thoughts. But hell, who could blame him for being distracted by all this? While he hadn't exactly been the sit at home and do nothing type of guy when he was younger, and certainly had had his share in not literally legal explorations, this was new.

He hurried after Jensen, who had by now successfully broken into the garage. Scott followed him in, and stopped dead again. He had just walked into what looked like a perfectly creepy set for Buffy the Vampire slayer or something.

One wall of the garage was lined with all kinds of weapons. Daggers, knives, guns, he could even spot a crossbow. The other walls were covered in pictures and notes. There were two small desks, overflowing with books and what looked like herbs and some other stuff he couldn't define. To their left, under a small window, was a huge table, set up like an altar. It was overflowing with all kinds of stuff, including your stereotypical skull and black candles. The floor and the ceiling where painted with the most intricate versions of a pentagram Scott had ever seen. Not that his expertise was that far reaching in this kind of stuff. But still.

Jensen was already busy taking pictures of all that was around. While he did so, he kept muttering "Son of a bitch" and other rather unfriendly things under his breath.

All Scott could do was getting out of his way and looking around. When Jensen had finished with the small tables, Scott went over to have a look at them himself. Not that he expected to find anything, considering he wasn't even sure what they were looking for. The bunch of books that was lying around there looked ancient to him. The pages were yellowed already, and when he looked through the first one on the stack, he saw that the margins were fully scribbled with notes. It looked a lot like the books Jared and Jensen had. Just… more unpleasant, somehow. He closed the book again. Even if they were significant, it wouldn't mean anything to him. Probably not even to the cowboy, he thought. It was obviously Jared who was the brains of their team. Jensen struck him much more as the action type of guy.

"I got everything on picture. Let's pack up the books and then get the hell out of here. Dropping by at the crime scene will be pressing our luck enough, I'd much rather not be seen here…"

Scott had feared he might say something like that. So they had proceeded from breaking and entering to stealing. He was a little impressed at the easiness that Jensen displayed at committing crimes. While he realized that they were doing all this for some kind of greater good (and personal revenge, a little voice at the back of his mind added), Scott still felt rather uncomfortable with all that. He started packing up the books nonetheless.

"You think Jared will be able to make something out of this?"

Jensen shrugged. "I sure hope so. He's most definitely well better suited to that kind of stuff than I am."

When they had raided the garage, Jensen stepped out first to make sure that there was no one out to see them. When he saw that all was clear, he motioned to Scott to follow him. The books went into the trunk and the guys drove off.

Only when they rounded the next corner and the place they had just burgled was out of sight, Scott relaxed. He hadn't even realized how tense he had been. He glanced sideways at Jensen, who looked like he had just paid a courtesy visit to a friend or something.

"You are aware that you are disturbingly at ease with this kind of stuff, right? I mean... break ins, stealing, crossing police barriers and such…?"

Jensen chose not to answer.

"Yeah. I thought so. By the way, now that the others aren't around… just for the record. You don't involve the girls more than necessary, right? I mean…there's no need to get them into trouble or worse, hurt."

Jensen looked sideways.

"They wanted in."

Scott took a deep breath.

"Yeah dickhead, they might have wanted in, but they didn't know WHAT they were getting themselves into. You've seen Alex. You know what that thing can do. Someone else is DEAD. Now that might be your daily business, but it isn't mine. And neither is it theirs. And if that thing decides to have a go on them, your silly knives won't save them. So you keep them out, you hear me?"

Jensen snorted.

"Did you ask them what _they_ want before you went all daddy on them? 'Cause as far as I remember it was Luzy who found the first real hint that got us off to something, and while sometimes I'd like to strangle her, Belle did a good job out with me. And she sure as hell was whining less than you did."

There it was again. That dastardly self-assured and bored tone that drove Scott up the walls. He hated that guy. He hated him so much.

"I don't have to ask them, 'cause they are worked up and unhappy and want to do something. So however suicidal the mission is you guys might propose, the girls would jump on it. Does that not get into that thick head of yours? You have been prepared for this, god dammit. We haven't. They haven't. What do you think their chances are to survive an encounter with this abnormity?" Scott had gotten himself nicely worked up by now and was yelling at Jensen.

The other guy stopped the car with a sudden footstep on the break.

"What now…?"

"I'll tell you something, man. We have not been prepared. You can't be prepared for that shit unless you've done it your whole life. We've been thrust into this and no one really stopped to ask whether we wanted to or not. Somehow, it just got us in, and there's one thing you are right about… we don't back off. We don't sneak out of this, no matter how much we'd like our normal little lives back. 'Cause we've seen the stuff those things can do. So if you want to go around blaming Belle or Luzy for having the same resolution…then at least work up the courage and do it straight into their faces and not sneak around my back. I have no intention of getting them hurt, I had much rather kept them out in the first place. But things did go another way. Right now, all I care about is getting after that thing so everyone can finally catch a break. If you want out… open that door and go home. Otherwise, shut the fuck up."

He stared at Scott for a moment, and when the other one wouldn't budge, he started the engine again and drove on.

Scott focused on looking out of the window. If he didn't keep himself preoccupied, he might still punch Jensen in the face, despite the fact that the other one was driving. He had never hated Jensen as much as right now. Not because he was arrogant. Not because he was an emotionless bastard. But because he was right. Scott knew all the things Jensen had said. He knew why the girls where that desperate to do something, he even in a way understood Belle's terminator mode. But that didn't make this any easier. What he hated most was the fact that he seemed to be the only one who kept on getting into fights, who couldn't control his emotions. He had always been rather on the protective side, but at the moment this really got the better of him.

The stopping car cut his thinking short.

"From here, we walk." Jensen got out of the car. This time, he left the back in the trunk and only got a small package out. Then he tossed Scott a pair of gloves.

"Wear these and keep your gun close."


End file.
